What is PPP (PFI)? The private finance initiative (PFI), now also known as public private partnership (PPP), was started as a new way of procuring public sector assets in the mid-1990s. Where previously the public sector had procured assets, like schools or roads, and then managed and maintained the assets themselves, PPP invited the private sector to design, build, fund and operate the assets for a significant period of time, typically 25-30 years. To qualify as a PPP, a project would have to be affordable, represent value for money and transfer risk from the public to the private sector. Typically, sufficient risk would have to be transferred to ensure that, in accounting terms, the assets created by the project did not sit on the public sector balance sheet.