The top 20 changes in the financial industry since 2006

When NGI Finance opened its doors in September 2006, the financial world looked very different. The iPhone didn’t exist yet, high street banks were lending freely, and we saw banking customers queuing outside a branch to withdraw their savings.

Twenty years on, almost everything has moved. As part of our #ngi20 anniversary series, here are the 20 biggest changes we’ve seen in the industry since we started and what they’ve meant for the businesses we work with.

The shocks

• The run on Northern Rock (2007). In September 2007, savers queued outside Northern Rock branches to withdraw their money, the first run on a UK high street bank in well over a century. It was the first visible crack in a system that had looked unbreakable.
• The global financial crisis (2008). What followed Northern Rock reshaped the industry. Major UK banks needed government support, confidence in lenders collapsed and a decade of tighter, more cautious lending began.
• More than a decade of rock-bottom interest rates. Bank Rate was 5% when we launched. By March 2009 it had been cut to 0.5%, and it stayed at or below that level for most of the following twelve years, before falling to a record low of 0.1% in March 2020.
• The fastest rate rises in a generation. From December 2021, the Bank of England raised rates from 0.1% to a peak of 5.25% in August 2023. For businesses used to a long era of cheap borrowing, it was a sharp adjustment, and it has eased back since.

The shift in who lends

• Banks pulled back from SME lending. After 2008, the high street became far more cautious about lending to smaller businesses, particularly those that didn’t fit a neat lending box. That left a gap in the market.
• The rise of specialist and alternative lenders. Into that gap stepped a new generation of specialist finance providers, funders who understand sectors, asset types and situations. For a broker, having a far wider panel of lenders to turn to has been one of the most positive changes of the last 20 years.
• Peer-to-peer lending and crowdfunding. Platforms such as Funding Circle, which launched in 2010, opened up new routes for businesses to access funding directly from investors rather than banks.
• The rise of fintech. A new wave of technology-led lenders and digital banks, from challengers such as Starling, Monzo and Tide to online business lenders, changed what business owners expect: online applications, quick decisions and far less paperwork. Many of these newcomers also pushed established lenders to speed up and modernise.
• Government-backed support. Schemes such as the Funding for Lending Scheme (2012) and the creation of the British Business Bank (2014) marked a new willingness from government to step in and support small business funding directly.

The rule changes

• A new regulatory structure (2013). The Financial Services Authority was abolished and replaced by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority, with a stronger focus on conduct and consumer outcomes.
• LIBOR retired. The benchmark rate that underpinned trillions in lending was discredited by a manipulation scandal and finally phased out at the end of 2021, largely replaced by SONIA.
• Consumer Duty (2023). The FCA’s Consumer Duty raised the bar on how firms treat customers, with a focus on delivering good outcomes rather than just ticking compliance boxes.
• Commission disclosure. Scrutiny of how intermediaries are paid has grown steadily, from the FCA’s 2021 ban on discretionary commission arrangements in motor finance to the Supreme Court’s 2025 ruling on undisclosed commissions. The direction of travel is clear; customers should know how their broker is paid. It’s a change we welcome and one that rewards the transparent, conversation-led way we’ve always worked.

The technology

• The smartphone changed everything. From 2007 onwards, the phone in your pocket became a bank branch, a payment device and an office. Mobile banking went from novelty to expectation.
• Faster Payments (2008). Money that once took days to arrive could suddenly move in seconds, and the old rhythms of cheques and clearing times began to fade.
• Contactless and the move away from cash. Contactless card payments arrived in the UK in 2007, the limit has risen several times since (to £100 in 2021) and cash is now a minority way to pay.
• AI and automation. Faster credit decisioning, automated document processing and smarter underwriting are now reshaping the speed at which finance can be arranged and we’re embracing them where they genuinely help. 

The big external events

• The 2016 referendum and the UK’s departure from the EU in 2020 brought years of uncertainty for trade, supply chains and business confidence. It changed how many UK firms plan and borrow.
• Covid-19 and the government loan schemes. In 2020, the Bounce Back Loan Scheme, CBILS and CLBILS put government-guaranteed finance into the hands of hundreds of thousands of businesses at remarkable speed, alongside furlough support. It was an unprecedented period for the sector.
• Inflation, volatility and the cost of doing business. From 2021 onwards, energy costs, inflation and the turbulence that followed the 2022 mini-budget made cashflow planning more important for businesses than it had been for a generation.

What hasn’t changed

Looking back over 20 changes, the striking thing is how much of it is about speed, technology and regulation, and how little of it has changed what business owners need, someone to listen, to understand their situation and to find the right funding for it.

That has been true since we started in September 2006, and it’s what we expect to remain true for the next 20 years. Whatever comes next, we’ll be here to talk it through.