Lending

OakNorth’s Ross Dow shares key takeaways from the FFA Global Leadership Summit 2026, covering NAV lending, Basel 3.1, enforcement risk and macro uncertainty.

One of the most common objections I hear about OakNorth is that we’re expensive. It usually comes second-hand, from a broker who’s had the conversation or a CFO who’s compared our numbers with a high-street term sheet.

Independent sponsors have often found that the absence of a committed fund narrows their choice of lenders. We take a different view: we underwrite the business, the equity behind it and the strength of the investment case, rather than treating the structure as a shortcut to a credit decision.

UK investment trusts returned over £4 billion in buybacks in the first half of 2026 alone. Yet most boards aren’t structuring their credit facilities around that use case. Ross Dow, Director of Debt Finance at OakNorth, argues the gap isn’t about appetite, it’s about a conversation that hasn’t been had explicitly.

From the rise of NAV finance and hybrid facilities to growing opportunities in the lower mid-market, Ross Dow shares the five developments shaping today’s fund finance market.

Mixed-use” can describe a £48m London development or a £6.5m high-street acquisition — deals with almost nothing in common. OakNorth’s Hemesh Patel on why the label tells you next to nothing about whether a deal is fundable, and what underwriters actually assess in 2026.