Insurance premium finance is a well-established pillar of commercial lending, extending credit at relatively high yields to small and medium-sized businesses to finance mission-critical insurance products. Each loan is short in duration (9–10 months average maturity), fixed-rate, and generally priced at a spread over Prime. Loans are collateralized by the unearned premium of commercial policies held by highly-rated carriers. Down payments and other structured loan terms add security. The result is high-margin, high-growth portfolios with low credit quality costs, a safe avenue for lenders to deploy capital at attractive risk-adjusted returns.