Another non-bank finance outfit, Metro Finance, targetting the mid-market business clients of the major banks, is starting to amp up its operations. Moody's Investors Service has assigned provisional ratings to notes issued under Metro Finance's first auto and equipment asset backed securities transaction.    The transaction is a cash securitisation of a portfolio of Australian prime commercial auto and equipment loans and leases originated by Metro Finance Pty Limited (Metro Finance). This is Metro Finance's first auto and equipment asset backed securities transaction. Metro is looking to raise around A$300 million.The ratings agency noted that Metro Finance "targets prime borrowers, for small-ticket auto and equipment assets in low volatility industries, [and] originates its lending through the commercial auto and equipment broker and aggregator industry nationally."A special purpose financial report lodged with ASIC for the 2016 financial year on behalf of Metro Finance discloses that Metro Finance, with paid up capital of $2, is a related entity of Balmain Investment Management - a much larger and long-established firm with a high degree of vertical integration.Two of the three directors of Metro Finance are also directors of Balmain Investment Management: its founder Michael Holm, and Andrew Griffin, group chief executive. The other Metro Finance director is Phillip Crossman, the firm's CEO.Their directors' report for FY 2015/16 stated the company is a "prime commercial auto and equipment lender [that] commenced operations in August 2014."This is at odds with the Moody's report, which stated that "Metro Finance was established in 2011 as a commercial auto/equipment lender…. [and] … significant origination growth began in 2014."Nevertheless, the recent years have been the important ones for Metro Finance.The company is now past year two of a five-year business plan, which forecasts a substantial improvement in underlying financial performance for FY17 and beyond. In this regard, it seems the company has also been looking at other ways to boost its income in a crowded market. For instance, in February Metro Finance and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation launched Metro Green. This deal means Metro Finance, backed by up to A$50 million in CEFC funding, can pitch its customers a 0.7 per cent discount on its standard finance rate if they purchase low emissions vehicles, including electric vehicles and hybrids. It's similar to several other CEFC-backed green car finance deals inked with lenders  such as FirstMac, stretching back to at least 2015, with other securitisation-funded loan originators and distributors.