What Is Happening In Peer-To-Peer Lending - Market Commentary –6th January 2015

Totals lent to date (6th January 2015)

Assetz Capital - £50 million plus Funding Circle - £480,624,140 FundingKnight - £9,453,000 FundingSecure - £3,276,903 Lending Works - £4,760,840 Money & Co – £3 million plus Rebuildingsociety - £4,528,930 ThinCats - £88,383,000 Zopa - £709,000,000

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Assetz Capital

Assetz Capital's investors have so far funded £50 million plus (Exact figure not available).

There are currently 11 loans available to invest in with 5 of them being for wind turbine schemes.

Funding Circle

To date, it has processed loans totalling £480,624,140 – an increase of 3.39% in 3 weeks.

They had a record breaking final quarter to 2014 with £98.5 million being lent and started the New Year with a healthy 23 auctions available in the marketplace ranging from £7,500 to £156,260.

In April 2014, Funding Circle started to offer property related loans since which time it has advanced in excess of £25 million for this purpose. This is certainly an indication that they are a serious competitor with the banks for this type of finance.

They have recently undertaken a 3-year stress test of their loan book and are to be commended for doing so. In doing so, it was assumed that UK GDP dropped by 4% cumulative, interest rates increased from 0.5% to 4.2% and inflation rose from 1.8% to 6.6% peak. The results were encouraging with the rate of annualized bad debts rising from 2.2% to 3.4% per annum and investors' average net returns dropping from 6.7% to 5.5% per annum. The forecast increase in loss rates ( circa 50%) compared very favourably with those seen in the recession back in 2007 (65%).

FundingKnight

To date, loans totalling £9,453,000 have been processed – an increase of 4.07% in 3 weeks.

On Christmas Eve a haulage firm were seeking a loan of £50,000 to fund the purchase of additional vehicles with a focus on a same-day courier service. Interestingly, since commencing trading in 2003 with one vehicle, the company now has 8 vehicles and 14 trailers so would appear to have done well to expand in what is a competitive marketplace. This loan has been fully funded already.

There are no new loans currently available so it would appear you really do need to get in quick so that you do not miss out on a suitable investment opportunity.

FundingSecure

FundingSecure has administered advances totalling £3,276,903 – an increase of 23.34% in 3 weeks.

This peer-to-peer lender has been incredibly busy over the festive period with a huge increase in their drawn-down loan book. Furthermore, they currently have £1,096,000 of loans available at auction so there is plenty of opportunity available with excellent security margins and the potential to achieve a great return on your investment as the average net interest rate has been 12.8% to date.

Recent interesting loans posted included one for £145,000 with the security being 6 racing yachts valued at £275,000, a loan of £5,000 was sought with a 2002 custom built Harley Davidson motorbike valued at £10,000 being offered as security and a loan of £275,000 with the security being a collection of art valued at £860,000 by Sothebys.

Lending Works

Lending Works has arranged loans totalling £4,760,840 – an increase of 8.79% in 3 weeks.

Despite the Christmas and New Year period, there has been another significant increase in the amount they have lent and, of the loans set up in 2014, none have gone into arrears or have defaulted.

Money & Co

The amount lent so far is £3 million plus.

There appears to have been an increase in the number of loans coming to auction with 4 currently available for £425,000, £275,000, £90,000 and one for £70,000 that we mentioned in our previous commentary that was for a credit control company.

rebuildingsociety

rebuildingsociety's loan book stands at £4,528,930 – an increase of 2.56% in 3 weeks.

Currently, there are 5 loans available ranging from £28,000 to £100,000. One of those is for a company that designs, supplies and installs kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms and they are seeking £50,000 to expand their business including refurbishing their premises. Another is for £28,000 for a domiciliary care provider providing community supported living that requires the funds to help them expand into the care and supervision of minors with learning and physical difficulties.

ThinCats

The amount lent so far is £88,383,000 – an increase of 1.87% in the last 3 weeks.

There are currently 5 loans in auction. One of these is for £250,000 sought by a company that has developed an application to analyze and map the distribution of body fat to be used to measure obesity.

Zopa

To date, it has been involved in loans totalling £709 million – an increase of 2.16% in 3 weeks.

The size of its lending book continues to rise. Could 2015 be the year that Zopa breaks through the £1 billion lent barrier? We predict it will.

We trust that you have found the above to be of interest.