TSL Feature Articles

  • LeeHaskin_Crossroads_Headshot_150 Fighting Misinformation: Don’t believe Everything You Read on the Internet

    Borrowers face an uphill battle when conducting an internet search for capital. Lee Haskin of Crossroads Financial discusses the misinformation out there and offers clarifications concerning certain types of finance products.


  • RichardPaulOrmond Chronic Problems in Cannabis Lending Navigating the Patchwork of Laws, Rulings and Regulations
    The only constant in the cannabis industry is change. This article provides an overview of the latest developments and points out that lenders need a deep understanding of the inconsistent patchwork of laws and regulations and the continuing conflict of law between the states and the federal government before entering this space.
  • Lenders Beware: Lender Liability
    The past few years have seen strong liquidity in the marketplace coupled with unprecedented government support of certain borrowers; increased competition for secured transactions among banks and non-banks; and surprisingly fewer distressed transactions during the pandemic than would have been anticipated. As a result, lenders have not had to focus as much on managing distressed credits and the potential pitfalls and risks that are associated with them. As a few recent cases discussed below show, assertions of lender liability may arise in various contexts to an unsuspecting lender. 
  • Coming Into Focus - TSL Inaugural Data Issue
    Jul 7, 2022
    Welcome to The Secured Lender’s first ever Industry Data Issue. Over the past several years, SFNet has invested heavily in data resources designed to improve planning, provide competitive benchmarking, and attract capital to our industry. Through resources like our groundbreaking Market Sizing and Impact Study, which dimensioned the secured finance ecosystem and will be refreshed this year, to our quarterly and annual data surveys, which continue to grow in participation, to our forward looking Market Pulse Reports, we have made great strides in capturing, analyzing, and predicting industry trends by the numbers.
  • Julia Gavrilov_150 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Are the Necessary Corporate Differentiators

    A Moritt Hock & Hamroff partner discusses the potential legal implications for companies that are not committed to diversity and inclusion as increasing shareholder pressures and legal complaints mount.

  • ArinReeves_2022_150 Stop Managing Your Time and Start Managing Your Energy
    Dr. Arin N. Reeves, researcher, author, and leading advisor to many top executives, offers her advice on the energy deficit so many of us are experiencing.
  • Where Are They Now? Catching up with prior SFNet 40 Under 40 Award winners
    Jun 15, 2022
    From promotions to new jobs to starting their own advisory firms, award winners share their career advice and what they have learned.
  • DavidChmiel_Headshot_150 Can the Global Supply Chain Survive Global Political Disorder?
    Jun 6, 2022
    The managing director of Global Torchlight, a geopolitical risk advisory firm, discusses the various reasons for the supply chain disruption and what we may expect in the future.
  • Fiorentino_Angela_Photo When the Grass Isn’t Greener: How to Stay Where You Are and Ask for What You Want
    We’ve all heard the phrase “The Great Resignation” over the past few months. Angela Fiorentino of AmeriFactors Financial Group and a member of SFNet’s Women in Secured Finance Committee gathered several top female executives to discuss the best way to communicate your professional goals and hold some of those “tough conversations” in this current climate.
  • BetsyRatto_HilcoGlobal_150 Shifting Gears: An Interview with Hilco Global’s Betsy Ratto
    Apr 5, 2022
    Betsy Ratto is senior vice president of Hilco Capital Solutions: ReStore Capital and Hilco Corporate Finance, with responsibility to drive business for ReStore Capital and Hilco Corporate Finance. She is responsible for originating and executing corporate finance and capital markets transactions, with a focus on the retail industry and other financing transactions. She joined Hilco in fall 2021 and is based in Hilco’s Boston office.

    Here, she discusses her goals at Hilco, challenges and opportunities in the retail sector, differentiating yourself at a non-bank platform, and lessons learned in leadership and career development.
  • Michele Ocejo Leading the Way Forward: A Conversation with the Women of SFNet’s Management and Executive Committees
    Apr 4, 2022

    In 2010, only 19 women served on the SFNet Board of Directors, today there are 46. We’ve doubled the representation of women on the Executive Committee from three to six. Here, we speak with the six women who currently sit on SFNet’s Executive and Management Committees.

  • Parikh_Merritt_Pic Factoring Trends for 2022
    Mar 14, 2022

    What’s in fashion for factoring this coming spring? Quite a bit. This year’s trends show what we’ve all been keeping under wraps for the last two years, and we’ll be seeing some definite changes.

    First up, a cascade of activity with more traditional bank lenders that retained customers during the pandemic based on regulatory allowances and readily available government funding may start pushing out underperforming loans.
  • Robert Grbic - White Oak Interview with Bob Grbic, President & CEO of White Oak Commercial Finance and the Chair of SFNet’s Factoring Committee
    Mar 10, 2022

    Robert Grbic has more than 30 years of commercial lending experience. He has been with the company and its predecessor since 2005, previously serving as senior executive vice president and chief credit officer where he was involved in creating a hands-on, best-practices credit culture, as well as helping the Company expand its client portfolio.

    Before that, Grbic was managing director at MorrisAnderson & Associates ltd., a turnaround-consulting firm. He also co-founded MetSource Capital, LLC, a restructuring and corporate finance firm, working primarily with small- and medium-sized companies. In addition, Grbic has also served at GMAC Commercial Credit, LLC, BNY Financial Corp and Bankers Trust. He has served as an instructor for the Finance, Tax and Law Department at the NYU School of Continuing Education. Grbic holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees in Business Administration from Pace University.

  • Members of SFNet’s Factoring Committee Discuss Sources of Business, Supply Chain Issues and More
    Mar 8, 2022

    TSL’s editor-in-chief sat down with several members of the SFNet Factoring Committee to review the current landscape in early 2022. Participants include Carol Apicella, senior vice president, BankFinancial Government Finance; Tina Capobianco, senior vice president, J D Factors Corporation; Dan Karas, executive vice president, Allied Affiliated Funding; Kevin Laborde, president, Cash Flow Resources; and Paul Schuldiner, executive vice president & chief lending officer, Rosenthal & Rosenthal, Inc.

  • Financial Forecasting in the Post-Pandemic World
    Feb 28, 2022
    Executives from PKF Clear Thinking provide key points that both lenders and their borrowers need to be mindful of when preparing and reviewing 2022 and beyond business plans.
  • TimKnight hi res headshot_150 An Interview with Tim Knight, Senior Managing Partner, ThinkingAhead

    In this installment of our series of executive interviews, Charlie Perer sits with Tim Knight (pictured) to hear his perspective on executive development, advice for lenders, the growth in the non-bank market, what every executive should be thinking about, the importance of diversity and lessons learned, among other things.

    Knight is the vice president and senior managing partner with ThinkingAhead where he is responsible for operations, training and recruiting for the firm. He also leads the partner group that heads up the firm’s Commercial Banking and Commercial Finance, Legal, Life Sciences and Security/Physical infrastructure search practices.

  • PeterYork_2021 Interview with SFNet President Peter B. York
    Dec 7, 2021

    Peter York is managing director and head of the Asset Based Lending (ABL) practice for the Corporate & Investment Bank of J.P. Morgan. He has been with J.P. Morgan for over 17 years and has more than 27 years of secured ABL experience. York’s strengths include large multibank syndicated financing, cross-border structuring, leveraged buyout finance, and bankruptcy and debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing.

  • TSL1121_Wave_Anderson Is a Corporate Default Wave Ahead In 2022?
    Nov 11, 2021

    Some turnaround and M&A leaders are predicting the second quarter of 2022 could be when the “default boom” hits. Asset-based lenders, factors, and other secured lenders will need to be at the ready to handle turnaround deals.

  • Michele Ocejo SFNet 2021 Advocacy Highlights
    Nov 9, 2021
    The COVID pandemic pushed SFNet’s already active advocacy program into overdrive in 2020 and the past year has kept our advocacy volunteers just as busy. As we work to find the balance between economic health and personal well being, the SFNet team has had to quickly mobilize at times to respond to a diverse array of issues, from concerns around damaging flaws in the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (“EIDL”) program to the ongoing saga of state financial disclosure bills.
  • NneomaMaduike_150 How Diverse Teams Make Successful Companies

    Nneoma Maduike of Otterbourg P.C. discusses the impact a diverse team can have on a company’s performance.

Click on the link below to meet some of the “difference makers” in the secured finance community. This issue of The Secured Lender celebrates those who are having a profound impact on both their communities and their organizations. 

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