The Association of Professional Financial Advisers (APFA) has introduced a programme that it believes will help members reduce the overall running costs of their businesses by offering a range of exclusive member discounts.

The discounts have been negotiated with partners including Rymans for Business, Citation, Callcredit, Moneypenny and Printing.com. Through the scale of the APFA membership the new negotiated benefits will save small member firms up to £300 on annual business expenditure. The type and level of discounts vary between partners, but include savings of up to 75% will be available.

These join existing APFA discounts on Premium Credit factoring costs, and access to the KPMG VAT helpline.

Chris Hannant, director general at APFA, said: “APFA’s strength lies in its membership. It is through this strength that we lobby and fight on issues, such as the levy, to minimise the cost of doing business. We have again leveraged this strength – this time on a commercial basis – to win some big discounts with businesses suppliers that will allow adviser companies to lower their costs.”

Stuart Dunbar, managing director of Argyle Consulting and APFA council member, said: “As the trade association for all types of financial advice firms, APFA represents the views and interests of the advice community. One of the issues faced by all our members is the rising cost of running a business.

“We have now used APFA’s scale to broker deals to help reduce members’ everyday business spend on a range of products and services including printing, stationery, virtual receptionists, legal services and more.”