Last post: Aug 11, 2017
Having scaled back on wholesale lending, Ratesetter finally make it to the £2 billion lent mark… ThinCats and FundingKnight both get the green light to provide IFISAs after receiving Full Authorisation from the FCA… LendingCrowd offer £150 Cashback
Headlines: Having scaled back on wholesale lending, Ratesetter finally make it to the £2 billion lent mark… ThinCats and FundingKnight both get the green light to provide IFISAs after receiving Full Authorisation from the FCA… LendingCrowd offer £150 Cashback
Totals lent to date (10th August 2017)
*All data correct at the time this blog was compiled.
LOANS TO BUSINESSES
Assetz Capital - £305,399,239
Crowd2Fund - £4,000,000
Funding Circle - £2,500,000,000
FundingKnight - £31,485,000
FundingSecure - £150,421,858
Money & Co - £6 million approx
Rebuildingsociety - £11,600,000
ThinCats - £245,630,000
Invest and Fund - £3 million plus
LendingCrowd - £15,582,886
ArchOver - £42,147,000
PERSONAL P2P LENDING
Zopa - £2,520,000,000
RateSetter - £2,016,413,353
Lending Works - £64,224,113
…………..
LOANS TO BUSINESS
Assetz Capital
Lent to Date: £305,399,239 – fortnightly increase of £4,850,034 – 1.61% growth.
When this blog was compiled there were 73 upcoming loans with 2 imminently due to be drawndown.
Highlighted Loan: A pub landlord from the North East was looking to raise >£110k to purchase his public house from the brewery. He has plans to increase turnover by offering B&B. Security was offered via first charges over the pub and an investment property which is in the process of being sold. A return of 7% pa was offered so as usual I would be looking to invest in a managed account to obtain the same rate as well as benefitting from the additional security of a Provision Fund.
Managed Accounts: The following accounts automatically distribute funds on behalf of investors across different sections of the platform's portfolio and are covered by a discretionary Provision Fund:
Quick Access Account (3.75% pa)
30 Day Access Account (4.25% pa)
Property Secured Investment Account (5.5% pa)
Great British Business (7% pa)
Green Energy Income Accounts (7% pa)
Crowd2Fund
Lent to Date: £4 million – latest figure available.
There were 3 auctions added to the site in the past fortnight. As loans are listed for 30 days, only recent additions are noted in this blog.
Highlighted Loan: Italian food wholesalers were looking to raise £60k to consolidate debt and also to buy a new fridge. Their low Net Assets figure (less than £12k) was a concern although their most recent profits figure was £34k. With only a Director's Guarantee offered as security, I felt a return of 11% pa was a little on the low side considering the risks.
Funding Circle
Lent to Date: £2.5 billion – Funding Circle have launched their new website today. Previously the home page reported the "Lent to Date" figure to the nearest pound but that is now displayed to the nearest £0.5 billion. For those less nerdy than I, the figure is much easier to digest in the new format although it does prevent me from reporting how many millions have been raised each fortnight.
There were 8 auctions ongoing when this blog was compiled although, as loan requests tend to fill in a matter of hours on this site, that is not a fair reflection of throughput.
Secret Investor's Activity: This is one of the sites which I have the most exposure to -because they have the largest number of manually selectable loans.
Below are highlights from my activity over the past fortnight:
Highlighted Loan Invested in:
Expansion Loan of >£52k to furniture store (C risk rating 13.5% pa return). The business wanted the funds for a number of reasons but chiefly to increase staff and stock levels. While financials were marginal with net assets sitting £10k below the amount being borrowed, their website was very impressive so I decided to invest and support this business.
Highlighted Rejected Loan:
Working Capital and Growth Loan of £265k to electricians (C risk rating 12.5% pa return). Although there was enough profit on the latest balance sheet to cover the loan there wasn't enough detail about what the funds were to be used for – "The funds are required for working capital and growth of the business." was the proposal in its entirety.
Defaulted Loans Update: Last week a loan to a bar owner in Northern Ireland was defaulted because payments were 4 months in arrears. Their payments have been erratic for some time. Hopefully the money will continue to come in as, according to the events listed on their Facebook page, they are still trading. I have £43 outstanding.
This week was the first for a long time that I had no bad debt added to my total on "Default Thursday". During July, my annualised return on FC slipped from 7.8% to 7.5%.
Platform News: The most significant change to the website (which was unannounced) is the Home page which has been heavily revised. The bulk of the site appears unchanged although the fonts are different.
FundingKnight
Lent to Date: £31,485,000 – no change.
There were 0 auctions ongoing when this blog was compiled – only 1 loan has appeared on this site in 2017. The site is planning a relaunch in 2018.
Platform News: FundingKnight have been given the green light to offer an IFISA after receiving Full Authorisation from the FCA even though they have no plans to offer any further loans until the early part of next year when the re-alignment with their sister company, the Sancus BMS Group, takes place. As this is not currently an active platform I hope the FCA didn't delay other applicants when processing this request.
FundingSecure
Lent to Date: £150,421,858 at the end of July – monthly increase of £10,094,475 (7.19%).
There were 2 auctions ongoing when this blog was compiled.
Highlighted Loan: This was a renewal of a loan to increase the size of the extension on commercial premises in Lancashire. The LTV was below 50% so to further chip away at my unallocated IFISA funds, I allocated £250.
Defaults: Four more loans have been defaulted bringing my total up to 11. Worryingly, of these, the assets relating to just two of them are close to be sold although progress appears to be slowly being made on most of them.
Money & Co
Lent to Date: £6 million approx. (latest available figure)
When this blog was compiled there were 0 auctions taking place.
rebuildingsociety
Lent to Date: £11,600,000 – no change.
There were 0 active auction taking place when this blog was compiled. Indeed, things have been very quiet at ReBS over the past 4 weeks although investors have received an email assuring them that are loans in the pipeline.
ThinCats
Lent to Date: £245,630,000 – fortnightly increase of £1,905,000 – 0.78% growth.
There were 0 active auctions taking place when this blog was compiled.
Platform News: ThinCats is another platform that has been quiet over the past few weeks nonetheless they are the latest platform to receive Full Authorisation from the FCA and plan to offer an IFISA shortly.
Invest & Fund
Lent to Date: Over £3 million
There were 0 active auctions taking place when this blog was compiled.
LendingCrowd
Lent to Date: £15,582,886 – fortnightly increase of £904,040 – 6.16% growth.
There were 3 active auctions taking place when this blog was compiled. Lending Crowd appear to have reversed their decision to only list auctions for 24 hours as loans are being listed for up to 10 days. Clearly, they needed more time to fill.
Highlighted Loans: Café owner on the south coast was looking to raise >£212k to buy out a fellow shareholder. With 115 covers, this didn't sound like a large operation and was backed up by the financials which only had post-tax profits of £78k and £24k net assets. No doubt the Director Guarantee and Asset Security covered the loan but, as it appeared the borrower was new to the business, this sounded like a loan that could quickly get into trouble. With 100 minutes of the auction remaining, the capital requirement was only 33% funded.
Platform News: LendingCrowd have launched an August Cashback offer. Investors will receive £150 if they lend £2,500.
ArchOver
Lent to Date: £42,147,000 – fortnightly increase of £850,000 – 2.06% growth.
There was 1 auction taking place when this blog was compiled.
Highlighted Loan: Marketing agency were looking to raise £200k of expansion capital as they look to recruit staff to deliver their existing portfolio to a greater number of clients and also to develop more products. Security was provided by a charge over assets and accounts receivable. Insurance was provided by Coface. A return of 7% pa was offered to investors.
PERSONAL P2P LENDING
Zopa
Lent to Date: £2.52 billion – fortnightly increase of £40 million – 1.61% growth.
Returns: Zopa's 2 accounts offer returns of 3.9% and 6.1% pa with the latter allocating some funds to riskier loans that offer higher returns.
Zopa distribute investor's money mostly to unsecured consumer loans.
Ratesetter
Lent to Date: £2,016,413,353 – fortnightly increase of £17,156,960 – 0.86% growth.
Ratesetter have reached the £2 billion lent mark. They are the last of the big 3 to do so after throughput tailed off recently because loans to wholesalers were scaled back.
Returns: Interest rates are set according to supply and demand. They currently range from 4.1% pa to 4.6% pa depending on the length of the investment. Compared to a fortnight ago, the lowest rate has increased by 0.7% and the highest reduced by 0.2%. Over the past 4 weeks the lower rate, for rolling investments, has increased by 1.5%.
Capital is covered by a Provision Fund. Ratesetter proudly boast that no investor has lost a penny since they launched in 2010.
Lending Works
Lent to Date: £64,224,113 – fortnightly increase of £1,923,278 – 3.46% growth.
Returns: 4.0% pa and 5.0% pa via an IFISA or standard account for 3 and 5 year investments respectively. These rates are unchanged from a fortnight ago.
As well as a Provision Fund to cover investor's risks, this site also insures borrowers against redundancy, fraud, illness and accidents making this a very fair site for all concerned.
****Disclaimer: This blog contains the views of the Secret Investor. Your capital is at risk when lending via all P2P Platforms. You're recommended to speak to a qualified Independent Financial Advisor.
Comment