The credit crunch arrived almost a year ago and continues to plague the markets. But there is one area where it has not bitten hard – asset-based lending (ABL).

The practice of issuing private loans that are secured using a pool of companies’ physical assets – such as property, machinery or leasing agreements – as collateral is generating interest from borrowers looking for alternative funding because of the rising cost of debt and the scarcity of loans written by commercial banks.