Cloud 9fin

The collapse of UK mortgage bridge lender Market Financial Solutions has caused chaos across specialist lending. Mortgages are the heart of the securitised products business, and if you can’t trust mortgages, what can you rely on?
9fin broke the news of double pledging and shortfall in collateral found under its warehouse facilities. The fraud allegations are reminiscent of the recent cases of First Brands and Tricolor in the US that have shaken the private asset-based lending industry.
Lots of well-known firms have been caught on the wrong side of MFS — the likes of Barclays, Atlas SP and Castlelake — and it was a close shave for other lenders.
In this episode of Distressed Diaries, host and senior reporter Bianca Boorer sits down with 9fin asset-based finance editor Owen Sanderson and Kawai Chung, mortgage market veteran and CEO of UK lender Folk2Folk, to dig into the drama, assess the impact, and consider how the ‘safest’ form of lending might have ended up in double-pledging.
Most importantly, we look at what could be done differently in future — as borrowers scramble to prove their credentials and lenders look over their books, what’s the future of asset-based finance in Europe?

Alternative internet providers swarmed the market during Covid-19 when internet usage became paramount to the shift of everyone suddenly having to work from home during lockdowns.
In the UK we have over 100 altnet providers serving 16.4 million homes, according to a 2025 report by the Independent Networks Co-operative Association. This is up from 1.2 million homes in 2019.
Investors were quick to support this expansion with cheap funding. Since 2020, the sector has received around £17.4bn of funding, according to advisory firm BDO.
However, the ‘build and they will come’ model proved far too optimistic as subscriber growth failed to keep pace. Rising interest rates and burdening costs of building the infrastructure also weighed on these broadband providers.
We started to see the first signs of distress at the start of the year, with G.Network filing for administration, shortly after its acquisition by distressed debt investor FitzWalter, and creditors moved to take control of Gigaclear.
On this episode we sit down with Ben Davies and Stuart Keeping, senior managing directors from financial advisory firm Teneo to delve into the rise and fall of this overcrowded market and providers’ response to the challenges.

In this episode of Jane’s LME Addiction, our head of LME coverage Jane Komsky brings in Debevoise's newest partners, Rachel Ehrlich Albanese, Sam Newman and Daniel Shamah to discuss the groups enhanced restructuring capabilities. They provide an overview of the LME and in-court landscape, and discuss what the year may bring by way of out-of-court vs in court transactions, sponsor and creditor incentives, and whether liability management is a true fix.
Find all our coverage on co-ops and LMEs at 9fin.com.
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Recent headlines suggest the private credit market is beginning to crumble; however, the asset class isn't a monolith. Look further downmarket, and a far more resilient story emerges.
In this episode of Cloud 9fin, US private credit deputy editor Shubham Saharan is joined by Natalie Garcia, Deerpath's head of underwriting, as well as Reed Van Gorden, Deerpath’s head of origination, to discuss how the lower middle market is staying steady despite industry headwinds.
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Electronic Arts’ proposed $55bn leveraged buyout has upended expectations for its 2031 and 2051 bonds.
Instead of pricing in a straightforward 101% change-of-control payout, investors are weighing a tender offer and potential defeasance strategy that could strip covenants and lower the takeout cost. With a potential downgrade looming, bondholders must decide whether they can resist the maneuver or accept a discounted exit.
Tune into our latest episode of Cloud 9fin, where senior legal analysts Chris Osborne and Anthony Park unpack this situation with senior credit analyst Steven Price.
Follow our reporting of the Electronic Arts takeover at 9fin.com.
Have any feedback on this episode? Send us a note at [email protected]. Thanks for listening!