Why Financely Group Requires Upfront Fees. Scope, Cost Allocation, and Refund Principles
1. Purpose of the Underwriting Retainer
The retainer finances the initial workstream that transforms a proposal into a lender-ready credit file. That workstream includes cash-flow modelling, covenant design, collateral audits, legal structuring, sector studies, and compliance screening. Each task demands specialist input. The fee also secures the priority of the client’s mandate in our pipeline.
2. Cost Allocation
- Internal professionals.
Chartered financial analysts, project finance lawyers, and certified compliance officers assigned to the file.
- External advisers.
Valuation firms, technical consultants, and title agents whose reports lenders insist upon before credit committee review.
- Data infrastructure.
Secure virtual data room, sanctions screening licences, and document authentication services.
3. Distinction From Unauthorised Advance-Fee Schemes
The retainer is consideration for clearly defined professional services, not an entry toll to an automatic funding line. Payment triggers immediate deliverables—financial models, legal term sheets, third-party reports—that remain with the client. Funds are booked as earned revenue only as the work is delivered, not as an inducement for lenders to advance capital.
4. Refund Principles
The retainer is non-refundable once our team commences substantive analysis. If the client elects to withdraw before any modelling or third-party engagement begins, fifty percent of the retainer is returned. No refund is available after external costs have been incurred or draft work has been released.
5. Services Rendered to the Client
- Detailed credit memorandum aligning with private credit underwriting standards.
- Indicative term sheet negotiated to market norms for asset-backed lending, trade finance, mezzanine debt, warehouse financing, or bridging loans.
- Collateral registry searches and perfection road-map.
- Regulatory and tax structuring suited to the borrowing jurisdiction.
- Presentation of the file to private credit funds and institutional balance sheets with appetite for the relevant asset class.
6. Risk Allocation
Bridge, mezzanine, and warehouse facilities involve material capital outlay by lenders. Credit approval rests solely with those institutions. The retainer funds preparatory work; it does not alter the lender’s decision calculus. Prospective borrowers should budget accordingly and consult independent advisers before committing to any mandate.