Good morning, are you well? Splendid. And a new suit? Tie? Lovely. So, parish notices: please welcome Mike Cobb, our latest addition to the reporting team. You’ll find his debut work – on the value of securitisations – here. We also welcome back Jonny Minter, from three straight days’ absence doing nothing but playing Grant Theft Auto V. Real graft for the team.
Moving on. The first votes are in for the Motor Finance Power 50, this year’s search for the most influential individuals in the industry. Obviously, I’m not going to let on too much, but we’re already seeing a good representation for both independent and captive finance providers, prime and subprime lending, with a sprinkling of brokers’ and regulators’ names in there, too.
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Many of you remember last year’s inaugural poll (see Motor Finance, issue 98, December 2012). I know this because people who made the list enjoy talking about it when they meet me. As they should. Everybody has the same smile when they talk about it. They’d love to have been higher or beaten a certain somebody, but dare not admit it unless couched in a joke. But I can see the desire.
If you haven’t voted, let me explain how to do so. This is in response to a couple of calls and emails I’ve fielded in the past fortnight and will be the closest I ever get to penning actual rules:
- Think, honestly, of the 10 most powerful or influential people in UK car finance. This may include people you know and people you’ve only heard of or read about.
- This may include rivals or colleagues. It may even include you. If you believe you are one of the 10 most powerful or influential people in UK car finance, that is fair enough.
- Once you have your list of 10 names, email them to me at: richard.brown@timetric.com.
- Please say if the names are in any order of power or influence. I will give weighting to this if you think it is merited and tell me so.
- Please encourage colleagues and friends in the industry to vote. Anybody who works in the business and takes the time to email me deserves to have their votes counted. This is a plateau democracy. You can even ask friends and colleagues to vote for you, or any other specific individual. I can’t stop this from happening and the extent to which any one person can persuade others to vote for them is a measure of their influence. What I can do is spot spam voting. So please don’t.
- Please do feel free to vote for your boss or, if you are the boss, ask your staff to vote for you. That’s OK. That’s why I’m asking for 10 votes: one for the MD maybe, another for the deputy too, maybe, but at least eight other votes for people who make a difference in the world of motor finance.
- All voting is confidential, absolutely on my honour. Did anybody last year find out who had voted for whom? Nope. Not on my watch.
- Please do not vote for me, or any Motor Finance staff. This would seem unfair. This is also some pre-emptive face-saving on my part for when I don’t make the list.
- Please think as widely as possible before voting. Lawyers, tech suppliers, politicians, economists, collection agencies, debt buyers, car designers and trade bodies all leave their subtle or indirect marks on our world.
- The deadline for your votes is the end of the first week of December. Once all the votes are in, we’ll count them up and publish them in a top 50 in December’s issue.
- Editor’s decision is final.
So give some mates in the business a Merry Christmas.
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