The Chartered Institute for Credit Management British Credit Awards is the recognised standard in the credit and collections industry. This year, they recognised Lending Stream, one of the UK’s largest alternative lenders, as the Consumer Credit Team of the Year.

Lending Stream were presented this award for their continued focus on good conduct, customer service achievements, strong leadership and staff development. This recognition also serves to underline how GAIN Credit (which operates the Lending Stream and Drafty consumer credit brands) are growing their reputation as the lender-of-choice in the UK’s alternative lending industry.

“We’re delighted to win this award,” said Chris DeBoer, CEO of GAIN Credit. “2017 was a strong year for us in terms of industry recognition, and we’re really happy to kick off 2018 like this. There’s been a lot of hard work from the GAIN Credit team and it’s all been done with the consumer in mind. We look at this award as recognition of that and we’d like to thank the CICM.”

In 2017, GAIN Credit re-branded Lending Stream with a bold new look and feel, following a year of award success. They were awarded the Consumer Credit Awards ‘Innovation of the Year’ and scored a hat-trick at the F5 Awards, being named ‘Best Brand’ and ‘Alternative Lender of the Year’, with Chris DeBoer winning ‘Leader of the Year’.

GAIN Credit has gone from strength to strength since the FCA took over supervision of the consumer credit sector in 2014, despite the overall sector continuing to report a reduction in volume since FCA regulation and a cap on the cost of credit. In 2016, they launched the new brand, Drafty, offering the very first fee-free credit line with a representative APR under 90%.