Pawning your Porsche, the latest trend for hard-up elites

This garage full of exotic sports cars isn't a parking deck in Las Vegas or the valet stand at the Mall of the Emirates. Rather, its the temporary collection of Borro, a new sort of high-end lender which offers short-term loans to the wealthy against their assets — whether those are Ferraris or fine art. And as you can tell from above, business has never been better.

If you think this sounds like a pawnshop, you're right, but founder and chief executive Paul Aitken prefers the term private banking. Founded four years ago in Britain, and launched in the United States last year, Borro just passed the $75 million mark for loans made, which can range from $1,000 up to $1 million. Why someone who owns a Ferrari would need such a service lies at the crux of Aitken's business: Wealth isn't the same as cash, and even the well-heeled occasionally run short of hard currency.

Borro's clients "want liquidity quickly, because they have an opportunity they want to realize, or they have an issue they want to resolve like a tax payment" Aitken says, adding that small businessmen make up the majority of his customer base. "They have irregular cash flows, and they don't want to be tied down to the long-term lending of the bank."