bLEND Funding Plc, established in 2018, is a financial aggregator providing much-needed, competitively priced bond finance to housing associations across the UK. The purpose of our funding is to finance the purchase, acquisition, development, repair or improvement of property to be used for affordable housing and the refinancing of existing loans.

bLEND, which offers its clients a range of attractive maturities to suit their individual need, incorporates a transparent funding structure, simplified credit process and the addition of reverse enquiries. It adheres to the following set of core principles:

• Funds are raised solely for on-lending to Registered Providers of Social Housing in the UK.
• Funds are on-lent on a substantially identical maturity, interest and repayment profile thus ensuring that no material mismatch risk is taken on interest rate movements.
• No currency risk in relation to its funds is taken by bLEND or passed on to its borrowers.
• Loans are fully secured and covenanted in accordance with the terms of bLEND’s governing Trust Deed.

bLEND has a clear vision; to Provide competitive bond finance to the affordable housing sector, by obtaining funding from issuance under a Euro Medium Term Note (EMTN) Programme.

The EMTN programme incorporates the following features:

• Sterling only
• Range of maturities
• Primarily fixed rate issuance but floating rate issuance will also be possible
• Issue proceeds may only be on-lent to Registered Providers of Social Housing in the UK.
• Programme size up to £3bn

bLEND’s inception is a direct response to strong housing association demand for long-term bond finance. bLEND stands out as a provider of competitive debt aggregation as a prominent alternative to own-name bonds and private placements which generally price wider and demand larger amounts of debt.

The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Housing Finance Corporation (the UKs leading affordable housing aggregator), but remains legally separate, and does not receive support from the wider THFC Group. As such THFC provides bLEND’s staff under the terms of a Management Services Agreement with THFC’s service company, T.H.F.C. (Services) Limited.