Holding a master of law degree from the University of Cape Town, Peter Stokes is the cofounder of Concord Equity, an independent advisory group which makes and facilitates debt and equity investments in private companies. As an independent investment advisory group, Concord Equity works in various industries and markets throughout Europe, North America, and South Africa. Currently, Peter Stokes is involved in supporting businesses he is passionate about and works to stay up to date on the current trends in the investment industry and in particular the changing regulatory framework impacting asset backed securities transactions by regularly attending the Global Asset Backed Securities conference in Barcelona.
Peter Stokes assists Concord Equity to identify opportunities for cross-border transactions, and to develop solutions to allow capital providers to efficiently participate in cross border ABS opportunities in their search for yield.
The LendIT Fintech USA conference in San Francisco in April 2018 offered insight into the impact of innovative fintech solutions to enabling the growth of non-bank consumer lenders in the USA. Non-bank lenders constitute the majority portion of consumer finance providers in the USA, whereas in Europe the banks dominate the consumer lending market with non-bank lenders making up a small portion of the market in Europe.
The innovations of the fast growing fintech industry, and the new waves of Artificial Intelligence and the use of the block chain in finance, are providing the tools to disrupt this status quo, enabling the new non-bank entrants make quick gains in winning market share. These innovations are likely to be the catalyst for change in consumer lending globally, particularly in the growth of non-bank lenders in Europe and markets traditionally dominated by major banks. The essential ingredient will be for the capital providers to get comfortable to support this growth, which Concord Equity anticipates will be achieved, and looks to support, by utilizing asset back lending and securitization techniques.
On June 11-13, 2019, Barcelona is again hosting the Global ABS conference, one of the largest financial conferences of the year. The conference is in its 23rd year. This will be the ideal forum to gauge the impact of these new dynamics on the consumer lending market in Europe, and how the regulators and capital providers are responding to these changes. It will no doubt be high on the agenda at next years Global ABS event, which has hosted some high profile keynote speakers such as Sir Nick Clegg in 2017 and David Rule, the executive director of the Bank of England and Alessandro Tappi, the head of guarantees at European Investment Fund. Peter Stokes and Concord Equity looks forward to attending again to keep pace to find opportunities om this fast changing and growing market.
