Future Projects

FAST has a number of ideas for future projects based recommendations put forth by steering committee members that have not yet been integrated into the current strategic plan. Some of these projects may be adopted into FAST's operations in the future based on input from the membership. Equally, it is possible that other initiatives not yet listed may be suggested, subsequently approved, and adopted.

• Fundraising for the Development of New Initiatives: FAST can play a significant role in identifying sources of and generating the funds necessary to finance costly projects from which the entire membership will benefit.
    
• Mechanism for Sharing Due Diligence: Where lenders are working with the same clients they currently duplicate their efforts. Sharing the due diligence process between lenders will increase efficiency by helping avoid this duplication of work. Producers will similarly benefit by avoiding repeat visits from lenders and having to undertake due diligence processes fewer times. Streamlining the process for producers will reduce the distractions that remove them from their day to day activities.
   
• Information Exchange: Lenders gather a significant amount of valuable information during their daily operations from both publicly available and non-public sources. All lenders stand to benefit from being able to access this information in a timely manner and acting upon it promptly. A mechanism may be developed for sharing such information amongst FAST members, enabling them to gain speedy access to time critical data whilst reducing duplication in their data-gathering efforts.
   
• Creation of a Financial Access Portal for Producers: There is currently no one portal, or "one-stop-shop" that provides SSME producers with access to the entire universe of socially oriented lenders. Producers wishing to access credit must apply to each lender individually going through a lengthy application process each time. A central financial access portal, made available through FAST, will enable producers to access multiple potential sources of funding through just one application. This project will build upon the basic Consolidated Information Access Point currently in development.
    
• Syndicated Lending and Larger Facility Sizes: FAST may explore a program working towards standardizing mechanisms for providing producers with syndicated loans. This will enable producers to apply for larger sized loans than they are currently able to apply for.