For a special episode of Another Fine Mezz this week, GlobalCapital’s senior securitization reporter George Smith was joined by Dipesh Mehta, Funding Circle’s chief capital officer.

Funding Circle is one of limited number of issuers offering European ABS investors the opportunity to get SME exposure. Of late however, with regulators making the right noises and with more issuers bringing different types of deals online, the SME ABS market is deepening.

Mehta was keen to see that continue, to bring more points of comparison and more liquidity to the market. He also said Funding Circle was keen to keep its public issuance going, with eight deals so far, the latest in May 2024.

In the second half of the show, Mehta reflected on his career so far. He shared his memories of a dramatic moment during the GFC, when the entire Barclays trading fell silent. He also discussed the experience of going through the upheaval of the pandemic working in SME lending.

Another Fine Mezz will be back with more special episodes before Christmas, including more from the SRT series, before the regular weekly episodes resume in January.