She has played a pivotal role in enhancing PremFina’s technology to benefit brokers and customers and now oversees both the sales and product teams, with a focus on accelerating innovation, delivering value for brokers and ensuring a seamless experience for customers.
What are the latest innovations happening in the premium finance space and how is PremFina responding to these?
“The premium finance market is undergoing a rapid evolution, driven by advances in AI and developments within the regulatory space, with the FCA’s focus on fair value. As economic pressures continue to mount and consumer expectations shift, the industry must respond with smarter, faster, and more adaptable solutions. Offering best in market technology solutions has always been at the forefront of our business model.
“While many businesses limit their AI efforts to front-end applications, treating it as an add-on, PremFina has taken a fundamentally different approach. We’ve made significant investments across our entire tech platform to ensure we can fully harness the power of AI. This deep integration allows us to unlock far greater value, drive smarter automation, and deliver a truly intelligent, end-to-end customer and partner experience. For example, our AI-powered platform, Aileen, automates routine queries, allowing our customer service team to focus their expertise on more complex queries, we also help customers to verify their identity in minutes, as opposed to weeks.
“The recent news that Close Brothers Premium Finance will exit personal lines has caused a significant impact for many brokers and their customers. At PremFina we remain fully committed to supporting brokers across both commercial and personal business lines. The news underscores the importance of competition in the market and the need for continued investment in technology to improve value creation for brokers, customer experience and create operational efficiency to support sustainable business growth. As we continue to scale, I’m confident that the steps we’ve taken leave us well positioned to adapt to market changes and support our partners and their customers through the evolving landscape.”
“Looking ahead, the FCA’s ongoing market study underscores the importance of transparency and competition within premium finance, ensuring fair value for customers. We welcomed the opportunity to engage directly with the regulator during the consultation process. Robust competition benefits everyone; it drives innovation, improves outcomes for customers and strengthens the industry as a whole. As the market evolves, the focus is shifting from compliance to active collaboration and working closely with regulators to ensure business models put the needs of customers first.”
What has the first half of 2025 looked like for the business? What’s coming up in H2?
“PremFina was established with a vision of disrupting a market which had long been dominated by legacy lenders. We set out to do this by investing both in technology solutions and in our people, to help brokers offer more flexible finance options to clients.
“We recently secured a £350 million finance facility from HSBC and Waterfall Asset Management, which has strengthened our position and will support our next phase of growth and fund the £1bn of volumes already contracted. Looking ahead to the second half of 2025, our focus remains on exemplary execution as well as strengthening and building new partnerships with UK brokers.”
What does the premium finance market look like now compared to 10 years ago?
“When PremFina launched 10 years ago, the premium finance market was concentrated among two dominant players, which by its very nature limits choice and innovation. We spotted an opportunity to introduce a more agile and flexible service, driven by true partnership and enabled through market-leading technology. By prioritising the needs of each broker, working with them to create value and provide their customers with a better experience whilst eliminating pain points – we have doubled the number of brokers we work with across the UK.
What role has culture played in business growth?
“Undoubtedly one of our key USPs is our company culture, which has been shaped by Sharon Bishop, PremFina’s CEO, since she joined in 2021. Operating fully remotely with around 140 employees across the UK, we hire people with exceptional problem-solving abilities and a drive for continuous improvement. This approach has helped us attract a diverse talent pool and maintain a leadership team that is 60% female—well above the financial services average. We believe diversity helps us improve our understanding of customer and broker needs, driving better business outcomes.
“We hire people with knowledge, enthusiasm and bags of energy, and we trust them to make decisions, operating as a flat hierarchical structure. The qualities that we most value when recruiting are the ability to problem solve. We value inquisitive people with a commitment to pursuing perfection, but crucially, not at the expense of progress. Our flat organisational structure supports agility and innovation, which has helped to maintain high service standards as we’ve scaled. We’ve recently undertaken a strategic repositioning of our leadership team, to facilitate a more joined up approach and avoid silos as we continue to grow.”
What’s next for PremFina?
“Between our fundraise, new leadership structure and new partnerships with major brokers such as Ardonagh Advisory and Markerstudy Distribution, 2025 has already been a milestone year and we’re only just past the halfway mark!
“As the year progresses, we want to maintain this momentum and continue to foster strong relationships with brokers, whilst the core of our business remains unchanged: making sure that consumers and businesses benefit from finance solutions that are flexible to meet their evolving needs. Continued investment in technology and people will remain central to how we create value, so watch this space!”
