NACFB reveals winners of broker awards

The National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers (NACFB) has announced the winners of this year’s Commercial Broker Awards at a ceremony held at Edgbaston Cricket Ground.

Matt Dawson, World Cup-winning rugby legend and former BBC Question of Sport presenter, hosted the awards which recognised excellence within the commercial finance broking community.

The awards were sponsored by Shawbrook Bank and the ceremony included a drinks reception, a three-course meal and a game of Heads & Tails to raise funds for the NACFB’s chosen charity, Young Lives vs Cancer.

Several notable winners of the 14 awards categories included the Buy-to-Let Broker of the Year which was won by Mortgages for Business; Vantage Finance also won highly commended for this category.

The Commercial Mortgage Broker of the Year was won by Watts Commercial Finance and highly commended was given to Mantra Capital Group.

And Rising Star of the Year was James Danks of Finance 4 Business. The highly commended for this category included Jake Batham of Crown Business Finance, James Wood of Charles & Dean and Claudine Reynolds of Blaise Commercial Finance.

Each judge was assigned up to three categories and asked to choose their top three entries for each based on strict criteria.

The judges looked at where a broker had applied innovative structuring on a complex or difficult deal alongside taking into consideration the impact on the client’s business, the lender-broker dynamic, and the ability to get a deal over the line.

Norman Chambers, managing director at the NACFB, said: “It was an extremely difficult task, despite having clear criteria against which to measure the entries.

“I’m very grateful to the judges for their commitment and dedication to the job and would like to congratulate not just the winners and those who were highly commended but all the firms who took the time to enter.”