365 Finance appoints George Visser as chief risk officer

365 Finance, a London-based lender to small and medium-sized businesses, has named George Visser as its chief risk officer, giving him responsibility for credit-risk strategy, underwriting policy, portfolio oversight and impairment modelling across its funding for UK and Irish SMEs. The company's own biography for Visser says he has held the role since April 2026, but contemporary trade press dated the appointment to late September 2026 and described it as effective immediately, a discrepancy that remains unresolved.

The appointment matters to the small businesses that use 365 Finance's revenue-based finance, also marketed as a business or merchant cash advance, because the risk function Visser now leads sets the rules for who gets funding, how much they can borrow, and how the lender spots repayment problems before they become serious. 365 Finance offers advances of £10,000 to £500,000 repaid automatically from a share of a business's card sales, a structure that ties repayment directly to daily trading and sits largely outside the Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) regulatory perimeter.

George Visser's professional background

According to 365 Finance, Visser joined after more than 11 years at Bayport Financial Services Group, most recently as group credit executive from January 2023 to April 2026. FinTech Futures independently reported his Bayport tenure and career progression in its 25 September 2026 report on the hire. 365 Finance's biography also says Visser developed Bayport's IFRS 9 impairment methodology and other financial and profit models across several jurisdictions; this is a company-supplied claim that FinTechPulse could not independently verify.

Financial Reporter dated its report of the appointment to 23 September 2026, and FinTech Futures published its account two days later, on 25 September 2026; both describe Visser joining as chief risk officer, a date at odds with the April 2026 start given in 365 Finance's biography, which gives no specific day.

What the risk remit covers

365 Finance's biography for Visser describes his role as covering credit-risk strategy, portfolio and impairment modelling, and underwriting policy across the company's SME funding in the UK and Ireland. In plain terms, that spans three linked jobs: setting the rules that decide which applicants are approved and on what terms (underwriting policy), tracking the health of the existing funding portfolio as a whole (portfolio oversight), and modelling how much of that portfolio is expected to turn into loss (impairment modelling).

No available source describes a prior weakness in 365 Finance's risk controls, a rise in arrears, or any other trigger for the appointment. There is also no evidence that the new remit will change approval rates, pricing, funding limits or the speed of decisions. The appointment should be read as a leadership change with a defined scope, not as confirmation of a problem being fixed.

How 365 Finance's funding works

365 Finance markets its product, branded Revu, as revenue-based finance repaid through an agreed share of a business's card takings rather than fixed monthly instalments.

Deductions stop once the agreed balance has been repaid, according to the company. Because the deduction is a percentage of sales rather than a fixed sum, the cash amount a business hands over varies with how much it takes on card each month.

A government directory entry maintained by the Department for Business and Trade lists a lower maximum of £400,000 for the same product, last updated on 13 February 2024, which conflicts with the £500,000 ceiling currently advertised on 365 Finance's own product page and reported in September 2026 press coverage. The available sources do not establish when or why the figures diverged, and the government page should be read as an older, conflicting listing rather than one that has been formally corrected or withdrawn.

365 Finance's product page does not publish a factor rate, total repayment amount or representative cost example, so no public source establishes what a given advance would cost a borrower. Meeting the published eligibility criteria does not guarantee approval; underwriting, now under Visser's stated remit, still applies to individual applications.

Why credit controls matter to small businesses

Revenue-based finance and merchant cash advances differ from a conventional business loan in ways that make the underlying risk controls especially relevant to borrowers, not just to the lender. The British Business Bank, the UK government-owned economic development bank, warns that this type of product can be more expensive than other forms of finance, that frequent deductions from sales can put pressure on a business's cash flow, and that contracts may leave factor-rate and repayment provisions unclear.

Because repayments come directly out of card receipts, a lender's ability to assess whether a business can sustain that deduction through quieter trading periods, and to spot early signs of a borrower under strain across its wider portfolio, sits close to the borrower's own financial wellbeing. Sound underwriting and impairment modelling are the tools a lender uses to make those judgements: deciding which applicants to fund and how much, assessing affordability at the point of application, monitoring the portfolio for signs of strain, and recognising expected losses before they show up as missed payments.

Regulatory position and complaints

The FCA's remit over business lending is narrower than many small business owners might expect. The regulator's 2026 perimeter report, first published 26 March 2026 and last updated 16 July 2026, states that regulated business lending generally covers borrowing of £25,000 or less where the borrower is a sole trader, a partnership of two or three people, or another qualifying unincorporated body. Lending to limited companies, limited liability partnerships and larger partnerships sits outside the FCA's perimeter altogether. In a separate publication on 17 September 2026 covering small businesses' access to finance, the FCA noted that of the roughly 5.7 million UK private-sector businesses recorded in 2025, some 95.5% are microbusinesses, and that much SME lending beyond the £25,000 unincorporated-borrower threshold falls outside its regulatory remit.

365 Finance's own complaints notice states that although 365 Business Finance Limited is registered with the FCA, its merchant cash advance activities are not FCA-regulated, and that complaints about merchant financing cannot be considered by the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). Registration with the FCA is a separate matter from authorisation to carry out a regulated activity, and readers should not assume that FCA registration means this product carries FCA or FOS protection.

365 Business Finance Limited is recorded at Companies House as an active private company, incorporated on 25 October 2012, with its registered office at Manor House, 21 Soho Square, London W1D 3QP, and classified under SIC code 64929, other credit granting not elsewhere classified.

What remains unclear

Several details relevant to a borrower or a close observer of the appointment are not established in the available material. 365 Finance has not published a factor rate, representative cost, or total repayment figure for its Revu product, so no cost comparison is possible from public sources. It is also not established whether every agreement requires a personal guarantee or other security, whether Visser's remit extends operationally into the Republic of Ireland in the same way as the UK, or whether any change in underwriting policy will follow from his appointment.

Businesses considering this type of finance can review 365 Finance's own eligibility and repayment terms, its complaints notice, and the FCA's perimeter and SME finance publications before comparing them with other funding options.