As the initial reports of the administrators appointed to oversee failed bridge lender Market Financial Solutions’ various funding vehicles roll in, a picture is starting to emerge of the terms that the company’s institutional lenders were prepared to offer to finance its buy-to-let and bridge lending.
So far three of the key institutional facilities have filed reports from receivers or administrators, giving a picture of the terms on which MFS funded.
Mercury Funding was a Barclays facility established in 2023 and focused on buy-to-let (BTL) mortgages.
A treasury official with experience in BTL and bridging said: “I haven’t seen a BTL warehouse where the senior advance rate is in the 80s for at least a decade; this is wildly off market.”
Most BTL warehouses have senior advance rates well into the 90s, as the structures are derived essentially from the same ratings models which feed into public deals. The senior tranche of a warehouse often blends triple-A, double-A and single-A risk.
The last public specialist lender BTL deal, Atlas Funding 2026-1 from Lendco, had a single-A advance rate of 97%, and was 90% triple-A.
Amber Bridging is a vehicle through which Avenue Capital provided mezzanine finance to MFS and
