ABOUT

About Bluestone Group

Our Locations
Cambridge

Our Group Head office and home to our fintech business, Fignum
Sheffield

Bluestone Consumer Finance

Investor Relations

From our very beginning, Bluestone has worked closely with a broad range of private equity and investment businesses to forge valued, often long-term relationships. Additionally, we have undertaken numerous successful securitisation programmes and portfolio acquisitions. Our success has been centred upon a combination of a clear and considered strategy, open communication, a  fully committed team and a culture centred upon ethical success.

We are always open to discussions with investors and as the many long-term partnerships forged over the years demonstrates, our success has been continuing and enduring.

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Lending

Lending is as old as money itself, but, like all areas of financial services, lending is changing; Bluestone is at the forefront of these changes in helping the growing number of consumers and SMEs whose circumstances mean that traditional lenders may not address their needs.

The economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has reiterated the importance of the type of specialist lending Bluestone businesses deliver. Combining leading-edge fintech digital capabilities with a human touch to create a compelling hybrid approach that is helping a growing number of people buy the car or van they want.

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Portfolio Management

Bluestone specialises in acquiring and managing portfolios of loans, particularly challenging loans and legacy portfolios.

Portfolio sales can be particularly attractive to vendors looking to limit their exposure to further losses and either release capital or reduce the risk that further capital will be needed to support a portfolio. Other interested parties include lenders exiting a jurisdiction or asset class, or the administrators of struggling ventures.

We also look after asset-backed securities. Many of these securities are now classified as illiquid and impaired, potentially preventing owners from holding them efficiently. We understand the complex credit and liquidity issues within these securities and how to price and manage them effectively to optimise returns.

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Credit Management

Bluestone Consumer Finance has been operating in the credit management sector for fifty years. It is an acknowledged expert with a UK-based team helping people to address past credit and debt issues. The business works on behalf of many household brand-consumer credit and lending brands across the credit spectrum and with public sector bodies. Additionally, the business is an active buyer of debt portfolios.

People affected by debt and the lenders they have or had an agreement with can all be confident that Bluestone has an ethical approach to helping them.

Working one-to-one with people, the team can tailor affordable repayment schedules to lift the unwelcome financial and mental burdens that unresolved debt issues can present.

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FinTech

Bluestone is committed to enhancing its fintech capabilities and to making these available to other organisations.

The fintech innovations developed by Bluestone's Fignum business are centred upon enriching the capabilities of traditional and emerging financial services providers, taking the friction out of existing processes, improving customers journeys, taking non-value-adding costs out of financial services and enhancing cash flow.

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Environmental, Social & Governance

Across the Bluestone Group, we are dedicated to our mission of being recognised as a responsible financial business, fully committed to the letter and, more importantly, principles of sustainability and ever mindful of our impact on society and the environment. This mission is written into our corporate governance considerations, policies, processes and products as we seek continuous improvements as part of our strategy for long-term growth.

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Our companies are always looking to recruit because we believe the foundation for success lies with our employees.

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Management Team

Alistair Jeffrey

Founder & Chairman - Bluestone Group

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Peter McGuinness

CEO - Bluestone Group

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Deborah Stokes

Managing Director - Credit Management

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Mark Ashman

CEO - Fignum

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Alistair Jeffrey

Alistair established Bluestone in Australia in 2000 following a career in investment banking in the UK, initially with Goldman Sachs and later with Nomura. In 2009 he moved back to the UK to establish Bluestone’s European operations. Alistair Chair’s Bluestone’s Group Board, and is responsible for implementing Board strategy within the various business units, maintaining Bluestone’s culture, compliance framework, policies and driving overall financial performance.

Peter McGuinness

Peter was appointed Group CEO in December 2016 after holding previous roles within the Group including CEO EU, CEO of Capital Management, CEO of Bluestone Equity Release and Chief Finance Officer of Bluestone Group. Peter is a qualified chartered accountant with a wealth of experience in the finance industry and non-bank mortgage originations.

Deborah Stokes

Deborah has 23 years experience in the debt collection and debt purchase industry in operations, project implementation and technical roles.

When Deborah joined the company in 1999 she operated in an Operational Project Management role for 4 years before stepping up to become Head of Recoveries in 2003 for 5 years before overseeing Compliance and IT systems. She was then involved in a Group HR and Facilities role covering 6 offices in UK, Ireland, Philippines and Australia. In 2016 Deborah returned to operational management becoming General Manager of Bluestone Credit Management responsible for all operational aspects of the company and was appointed as Managing Director in 2020.

Mark Ashman

Mark Ashman was appointed as CIO to the Bluestone Group in July 2019, then CEO of Fignum in 2020. Mark brings 30 years of Technology financial services experience, living and working in the UK, Asia and Europe and has also held roles at The Bank of England and BNP Paribas.

History

Company Establishment

Bluestone Group was established in 2000 in Australia initially as a specialist residential mortgage lender, founded by former investment banker Alistair Jeffery. He remains very much at the helm of the Group today.

Rapid Growth

Backed by a succession of high profile private equity businesses, Bluestone achieved sustained success in the Australian market, winning the BRW Fast 100 for the fastest-growing private company in 2004. Bluestone's revenue growth for the prior three years was an extraordinary 800%, a Fast 100 record. The following year, Bluestone was again featured in the top 10 of the Fast 100, with a turnover of A$56m and an annual average growth rate of 178%. Success led to expansion into the New Zealand residential mortgage market. In 2004, the business developed a reverse mortgage (equity release) proposition. This innovation made Bluestone the first major non-bank reverse mortgage lender in Australia and the first lender in Australia to offer a 'fixed for life' product so that borrowers were not exposed to long-dated interest rate risk.

UK Expansion

A series of successful securitisation and investment programmes saw the continued growth and exploration opportunities for expansion on other markets. This led to an office being established in Cambridge (UK) in early 2009. The Office of Fair Trading granted Bluestone's UK asset management subsidiary a Consumer Credit Licence later the same year. The approval enabled a subsidiary of Bluestone Capital Management (Bluestone Portfolio Management) to lend to individuals and small businesses and undertake servicing mandates in relation to a range of consumer loans (including second charge mortgages or mortgages secured on the property outside the United Kingdom).

Acquisitions

Despite the Global Banking crisis, Bluestone's growth continued, initially with the acquisition of Close Credit Management from Close Brothers in 2011. The business was subsequently re-branded as Bluestone Credit Management. The business provides a range of portfolio management services to a range of UK clients, including significant car and consumer finance businesses and the public sector. In 2020, the business was re-branded again as Bluestone Consumer Finance.

Further expansion followed swiftly with an office opened in Dublin in 2012. Initially established to service a finance portfolio, by 2014, the business had progressed to start lending into the auto finance space as Bluestone Motor Finance

Mortgage Sector Growth

Returning to the Group's residential mortgage roots, Bluestone acquired Basinghall Finance, an FCA-regulated specialist mortgage originator and servicer, re-branding it as Bluestone Mortgages, focusing on Bluestone's traditional specialist lending segments.

New Fintech Business

Following a strategic decision to focus on the UK and Ireland markets, in 2018, Bluestone sold its Australasian businesses, including its Manila-based call-centre, to funds managed by Cerberus Capital Management, with a licencing agreement that means the businesses still trade under the Bluestone brand. The funds raised by the successful sale have been reinvested into the UK business, including creating the fintech business Fignum in 2020. The business is developing contemporary, web-based products in the payments, telephony, and loan origination space and providing portfolio servicing and infrastructure solutions as a service.

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