Bibby Financial Services (BFS) announced that in Q4 of 2017 the company provided over $35MM in commercial financing to 64 new clients across all of its North American product lines. BFS specializes in financing small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in North America from a variety of industries including transportation, staffing, distributing, manufacturing and service. BFS Canada funded 19 new clients and BFS U.S. funded 45 new clients in Q4.

The company saw seven percent more new clients in 2017 than in 2016 across all lines of business and nearly doubled its business in Bibby Transportation Finance. Additionally, the asset based lending (ABL) funding lines closed in Q4 made up more than 50 percent of the funding for the quarter.

In 2018, BFS expects to see a further bump in the number of SMBs in need of factoring and ABL, estimating its client count will increase by more than 10 percent as the key issues confronting most businesses continue to be of concern. The most common issues include rising interest rates for business loans, managing cash flow and attracting new business. According to a recent Gallup Poll, 25 percent of business owners cite issues relating to government policies as a top challenge.

“Factoring and ABL are alternative financial solutions that are essential to entrepreneurs who need working capital to run and grow their businesses. Our client endorsements, the net funds we employed in 2017 and our 2018 projections to increase funds in use by 25 percent are clear indicators that our portfolio of products meets the funding needs of SMBs ,” said Ian Watson, CEO of BFS North America.