Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

Asset definition

What does Asset mean? In legal practice, an asset is any thing of economic value that a person or entity owns or controls and can realise, transfer, secure or enforce. The term is descriptive and used across contexts (company law, trusts, matrimonial finance, probate, enforcement and insolvency), with specific legislation or rules defining it for particular purposes (for example, insolvency, taxation and financial services). Assets include land and buildings, cash and bank balances, securities (shares, bonds and other fixed‑income instruments), receivables, contractual rights (choses in action), intellectual property, goodwill and, increasingly, cryptoassets. Assets may comprise legal or equitable interests and can be tangible or...

Asset Finance in the UK: Leasing and Secured Lending across Aviation, Shipping, Rail and Film, with Security, Registration, Insurance and Environmental Considerations

Published by a LexisNexis Banking & Finance expert

Practice notes

What is asset finance?

Asset finance describes a way of funding the acquisition of specific tangible, movable assets. The structure selected will depend on the character of the asset being acquired, ranging from lower-cost, smaller items used in the day-to-day operation of a business (for example, a photocopier) to very high-value, large-scale assets with a long useful economic life (such as an aircraft or a ship). This breadth reflects the range of assets a business may finance.

Funding can be arranged for a single, identified asset or for an entire portfolio of assets. A defining attribute of an asset finance transaction is that the asset itself, which is being financed, acts as the primary security offered to the financier. The income produced through using the asset will repay the borrowing and meet the interest charges over time.

Professionals advising on asset finance transactions may represent the owner of an asset (the lessor), the user of the asset (the lessee), the financiers, the manufacturers, or the operators. There are two principal types of asset finance structure:

secured lending, under which the lender advances money to the purchaser to acquire the asset and takes security over it in favour of the lender...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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