Adrian Bloomfield, chief executive of the ASTL, said the lender trade body was able to put its fees down because more members had signed up last year, bringing the total to 27.
He said: “We’ve done well to attract 27 members and our achievement as a trade body for the short-term lending sector has been remarkably good.
“There are people clamouring for us to do more and we would agree. More activity requires more money and more members, and progress is being made on this.
“We are an accountable trade body now and we represent enough of the industry that bodies such as the Financial Services Authority are happy to meet with us.”
Bloomfield said the ASTL was proud to have grown by such an extent in the four years since it was set up in 2008.
“We were set up at the worst possible time for being a lender in the middle of the credit crunch and at one time we were down to just 12 members,” he added.
“But this is an innovative market and it is most praiseworthy that our members have got back on their feet and made such a success.”
Bloomfield added that he believed there could be up to 100 short-term lenders active in the market though it was impossible to confirm this.
Some lenders are private individuals arranging transactions independently with developers and brokers.
Bloomfield said the ASTL had spoken to around 15 lenders who had decided not to become members “for some reason or other”.
