Quick Answer Business Loan vs Asset Finance: What's the Difference? A business loan is cash you can use for anything, repaid over a fixed term – harder to get because it is unsecured. Asset finance buys one specific asset (vehicle, machine, equipment) and the asset itself is the security, making it easier and often cheaper to obtain. What this means in plain language The difference is security. Lend cash against nothing but a promise and the funder prices the risk high and asks for suretyship. Lend against a truck that can be repossessed and sold, and the risk – and the paperwork – shrinks. Asset finance comes as instalment sale…