Experience suggests that the issue of fraud in invoice finance remains a persistent problem. Inherent in the operation of the sale of receivables is the temptation for unscrupulous or desperate directors to create ‘fresh air’ invoices, which do not represent the product of any genuine trading (or sometimes which exaggerate the extent of otherwise genuine trading), whether from the start of the facility or during times of poor trading.
At the end of this Summer, the Supreme Court delivered its anticipated judgment in the joint appeals in Hopcraft v Close Brothers Limited [2025] UKSC 33. The decision focused on motor finance, but the Court’s findings have far broader implications for all sectors in which brokerage services are available, including the invoice finance industry. The decision has come as welcome news across the UK finance world, though the story of compensation in relation to broker commission seems likely to rumble on for some time to come.
Jonathan Berkson, (pictured) joined Bermans in June 2013 and is a Senior Partner in our Asset Based Lending and Litigation teams. We spoke to him to learn more about him and his work.
Invoice financiers grappling with the threats and opportunities posed by AI may be interested to learn of the impact AI, and in particular the recent developments in generative AI, are likely to have on their interactions with their lawyers and with the court system.
One of the most complex and uncertain areas of law which invoice discounters and their lawyers regularly have to deal with is transaction set off, namely the extent to which the customer’s claim arising from defective or late performance of the contract on which the relevant invoice is based can be set off against the value of the invoice.
Readers will be aware that it is very rare for a reported case in the higher courts dealing with invoice finance to emerge, so we were interested to see a report of a recent case in another area of financial services which raised squarely 2 legal concepts which are fundamental to invoice financiers:
Bhajan Khalsa joined Bermans in October 2023 and is currently a Trainee Solicitor in our Creditor Services team based in Manchester.
Bhajan deals with contentious and non-contentious matters. The contentious work he is involved in includes bringing/defending claims against directors arising out of insolvencies.
He completed the LPC at Huddersfield University and has previous experience working in asset finance and invoice finance work for a broad range of lenders.
There was a time some years ago when a major selling point of disclosed invoice finance was the perceived ability of established Invoice Financiers practised in the art of collecting debts when compared to the frequent troubles of small businesses in persuading their customers to pay on time.