Focus - Broker funding: Finding your way through

With the major banks still cautious about lending, brokers are finding it tough to access funding for growth. Rachel Gordon looks at the options.

Brokers, like so many other smaller businesses, are being squeezed by banks' continuing reluctance to lend. So, much so, that for a chosen few, Aviva has decided to take action.

David Skinn, Aviva's head of bids and propositions, explains: "We've set up an arrangement where brokers in our Club 110 can talk to Macquarie Bank and if all goes well, borrow funds at a preferential rate.

"Certainly from talking to brokers, finding access to funding is not easy - there seems to have been little