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LaSer UK, the Solihull-headquartered consumer finance specialist is delighted to be partnering with Birmingham’s biggest further education college to create the UK’s first ever Professional Services Academy for 16-19 year olds.

Working with key members of the professional services sector from across the region, Birmingham Metropolitan College has launched the Greater Birmingham Professional Services Academy (GBPSA) to guarantee that the city’s professional services sector can continue to flourish long into the future. Recruitment for the Academy starts in May and the innovative concept gets under way in September, with a curriculum focused on qualifications in finance, banking, accounting, insurance, property and law.

LaSer UK joins six of the biggest and most successful organisations in the city's professional services sector to back the new venture from launch to provide high-level professional support for the students, including internships, mentoring by senior staff and workshop sessions. To signify their commitment, each of the partners, including Jayne Licari representing LaSer UK, signed a pledge at the launch of the new Academy held at the Sutton Coldfield campus of Birmingham Metropolitan College.

This exciting initiative is a natural fit for LaSer UK’s ‘Make A Difference’ programme, which combines fundraising, volunteering and fostering links with education to support the local community.

Sandra Bickerton, Corporate Social Responsibility sponsor at LaSer UK, said: “We’re enormously proud of the work we do with our staff volunteering for some very deserving charities and partners in local education, and we’re delighted to be supporting the Greater Birmingham Professional Services Academy to foster the city’s talent and support young people getting into the workplace with valuable skills and training.”

Anthony McCourt, Governor of Birmingham Metropolitan College commented: “We are very excited about the Academy and are convinced that this will lead the way in preparing future generations for fulfilling and rewarding careers within the professional services sector. This new initiative has only been made possible from the support and commitment that we have received from partners such as LaSer UK and we are looking forward to working with their team to deliver a unique learning experience for our students.”

LaSer UK, the consumer finance specialist behind some of the UK’s best-known High Street names, has launched a new affinity loan offer. The first partnership to launch is with Argos, part of Home Retail Group and the UK’s largest high street retailer online, for whom they have developed a new personal loan offer for their customers.

Argos approached LaSer UK to develop a loan offer which would be a compelling product for its customers and be tailor made for its systems. Understanding the needs of customers was a fundamental requirement to create a proposition which would cater for Argos’ broad customer base and be fully branded throughout the application journey. Argos is one of the UK’s leading digital retailers with 635 million website visits in the last 12 months. It serves around 124 million customers a year through its network of 735 stores.

The Argos Personal Loan, to be provided through LaSer UK’s consumer brand Creation, gives successful applicants the opportunity to borrow between £3,000 and £15,000 with instant online decisions and flexible payment terms.

The affinity loan deal represents the latest big-name partnership for LaSer UK, whose 40 years of consumer finance expertise has attracted the likes of Sony and Dell.

Stephen Hunt, CEO at LaSer UK, said: “Developing affinity loans is a key focus for LaSer UK and a natural extension to our product offer. Our experience in working with retailers to provide tailor made solutions enables us to develop products that increase consumer choice and drive sales and loyalty.

“Building on our continued growth, this launch is just the latest development as we enter new markets. We’re delighted to be working with Argos to enhance the brand’s offering and understand that Argos customers associate the brand with great products, good customer service and affordability. The addition of affinity loans increases the breadth of our offer and demonstrates our flexibility to meet the needs of retailers and their customers.”

Martin Yarnell, Financial Services Marketing Manager at Argos, said: “We’ve developed this new loan to provide even greater choice for our customers and we believe that LaSer UK is well placed to deliver it. LaSer UK’s team has decades of consumer finance experience to support our new offer. It was also important to us that we selected a provider with a UK-based call centre operation that would truly understand our customer base.”

Affinity loans are the latest addition to LaSer UK’s expanding range of consumer finance solutions, which include co-branded credit cards, fixed term finance, loyalty solutions and personal loans.

Solihull-headquartered LaSer UK's 'Big Thinking' has led to Birmingham Children's Hospital being chosen as the business's main charitable focus for 2013, having raised a massive £55,000 for fifteen local charities last year.

'Big Thinking' is the theme driving LaSer UK's 'Make A Difference' programme, which combines fundraising, volunteering and environment initiatives, engaging employees to support the local community.

The Make A Difference programme, which has raised over £140,000 since launch in 2008, had a hugely productive 2012, generating £30,000 for Marie Curie Cancer Care's new build in Solihull and towards other hospices in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

In addition to the campaigns planned for Birmingham Children's Hospital; LaSer UK will also continue to fundraise for Marie Curie Cancer Care, Age UK Solihull and Northern Ireland Cancer Fund for Children. The retail finance specialists will also continue its community work with the likes of the Grace Academy and Sharman's Cross Primary Schools, and the Sparkhill Food Bank.

Sandra Bickerton, Corporate Social Responsibility sponsor at LaSer UK, said: "Last year was enormously rewarding for our Make A Difference team. Our staff volunteered over 700 hours to some very deserving charities and partners in local education, and we're very proud of the substantial sums we've raised for our communities. Our 'Big Thinking' aim is to increase our reach and pace in helping our local communities - it's a challenging ambition that we firmly believe we will meet and whilst having lots of fun on the way."

Following their recent success winning Best Co-branded Card Programme at the annual Card & Payments Awards, LaSer UK has been shortlisted in three categories at the annual Loyalty Awards 2013.  The event recognises excellence, innovation and best practice in the Loyalty industry.

The leading provider of card, loyalty and retail finance solutions will once again go up against some of the biggest names in the industry at the 2013 awards to be held on 11th June.  Reflecting their customer focus and marketing and loyalty expertise, LaSer UK has been shortlisted in the following three categories: Best Loyalty Programme of the Year - Financial Services, Best Use of CRM in a Loyalty Environment and Best New Loyalty Programme of the Year.

Stephen Hunt, CEO, LaSer UK, said: "It is a fantastic achievement to be shortlisted for three awards in such a prestigious ceremony and shows both the quality and strength of our loyalty, data and marketing expertise.  We pride ourselves on developing great products for our customers and leveraging customer insight to release value for our partners.  This is reflected in the momentum within our business as we continue to deliver engaging customer programmes."

It marks a successful start to the year for LaSer UK and its consumer brand Creation, as they launch a new affinity loans offer.

LaSer UK, the leading provider of card, loyalty and retail finance solutions, proudly supported Comic Relief's Red Nose Day raising valuable funds for charity.

LaSer UK employees are renowned for making an impact in the community, having raised over £140,000 for good causes since 2008 and clocking up 700 hours of community work in 2012.

The work hard, play hard team is committed to supporting charitable activities, ranging from fundraising for local charities to volunteering at schools and colleges, as part of their Make A Difference programme which focuses on developing employees' skills and benefiting local causes helping create a more rewarding place to work.  And Red Nose Day was no exception.  As Comic Relief celebrated 25 years, LaSer UK employees embraced the opportunity to go back to the Eighties, signalling their support for worthy causes and demonstrating great teamwork at the same time.

Sandra Bickerton, Creation's Corporate Social Responsibility sponsor, said: "The response from our employees was phenomenal.  Along with dressing in Eighties outfits, we got fully behind Red Nose Day with activities including a cake bake off, sponsored silence and quiz; all raising funds for Comic Relief and raising smiles from our team."

The good work continues as LaSer UK is set to announce its chosen charities for 2013, building on the success of their Make A Difference programme to date.

LaSer UK, a leader in innovative finance solutions, has bolstered its Premium Finance team with two senior appointments: Bob Bains has been promoted as Head of Premium Finance Partnerships and is joined by Andy Appleton as Business Development Manager.

Bob, joined LaSer UK in December 2010 as Premium Finance Regional Manager (South) and has over 25 years experience in a wide variety of financial services sectors. Bob will be ideally placed to use this experience to develop a fresh and exciting approach to the Insurance Premium Funding market helping brokers maximise their sales and profit opportunities.

Andy previously spent 15 years at Close Premium Finance spending the last 5 years in their Sales Senior Management Team driving growth and developing relationships with broker and network partners. Prior to CPF he worked in the insurer and broker sector.

Andy will work with Bob to identify and cultivate relationships on behalf of the LaSer UK Premium Finance team.

These appointments take place during a period of considerable achievement. The continued popularity of iFinance, an online reporting system offering a comprehensive credit management solution, has seen over 1 million insurance applications completed within 18 months. Further product innovations are to be launched over the forthcoming months.

Conor Cubitt, Managing Director, Premium Finance, commented: "We've reached an exciting point in the history of LaSer UK's Premium Finance offering, and this is reflected in the appointment of respected industry stalwarts such as Bob and Andy. Their industry know-how matches our own deep experience of the insurance market, with over a decade of operations in this field."

"This commitment to team growth also demonstrates our confidence in the future of this division. Backing from the BNP Paribas group gives us the stability that reassures insurance brokers, and provides us with the platform to introduce further innovations to improve broker performance."