*All data correct at the time this blog was compiled

LOANS TO BUSINESSES

Assetz Capital – £80,000,000 almost
Funding Circle - £775,228,200
FundingKnight - £22,311,500
FundingSecure - £10,694,854
Money & Co –  £6 million approx
Rebuildingsociety - £7,564,885
ThinCats - £124,545,000
Invest and Fund - £1 million plus
LendingCrowd - £1.25 million plus
ArchOver - £6,255,000

PERSONAL P2P LENDING

Zopa - £1,004,000,000
RateSetter - £746,526,729
Lending Works - £12,655,668

…………..

LOANS TO BUSINESS

Assetz Capital  

Lent to Date: Almost £80 million 

14 loans currently require funding with returns between 6.5% to 18%

There are also 2 managed accounts that are covered by a provision fund. These have a capped return of 7% and are something I have increased my exposure to in the past fortnight.

Highlighted Loan: An upcoming loan for £637,000 will enable an experienced property developer to convert a house in Wood Green, London into 3 flats. I was tempted to put money in this loan due to its LTV of 65% and an interest rate of 10.75% - with no fees for investors. Property in the booming London market so this seems safe bet but there are risks from the renovations not progressing as expected.

Platform News: Assetz Capital have released a statement relating to the recent Government announcement concerning a reduction in support to new Renewable Energy ventures as the platform lends to many businesses in this market sector. The rule changes were part of a long-term plan and only affected new, large-scale projects with a total capacity greater than 5MW. The projects which Assetz Capital help to fund in the mainland UK are smaller than this threshold and receive inducements from another scheme (Northern Ireland has different schemes altogether). The government assistance for smaller Renewable Energy projects is also under review but, as things stand, Assetz Capital plan to continue to provide loans in this arena.

As an investor, I take comfort from the fact that, even though incentives have reduced for new large schemes, they are still in place for existing Renewable Energy facilities and I would expect the smaller schemes which I have invested in through this platform to continue to receive state help. If assistance for new small schemes is withdrawn however it will be interesting to see whether these projects will continue to look for funding via Assetz Capital.

Funding Circle

Lent to Date: £775,228,200 – growth of £21.5 million since 6th August. This represents a 2.85% increase which is something of a downward trend when compared to the previous two fortnights which saw increases of 3.5% and 3.13%. Activity is likely to pick up in the next few weeks when the Summer holiday period ends.

44 loans are available across 6 risk bands (6% to 18.2% before fees and defaults)

Highlighted Loan: This week I invested in a Band E loan to a print services company. These new higher risk offerings have been getting fully funded in little more than an hour with investors (or at least their "auto bid" robots) being attracted by the 18.2% minimum rate for this category. This loan required greater fund than is the norm at £214k+ and so was far from fully funded when I picked it up 4 hours after its auction began. It will be interesting to see whether it reaches its minimum rate as loans at lower risk bands rarely do. How tempting will the high rates of interest be? As these Band E loans don't come up that often, I decided not to wait and see how soon bidding would close – that may have happened while I was doing the "day job" causing me to miss out as is so often the case.

The business has a previous Funding Circle loan that was rated at Band C with an interest rate of 12.4% but the amount of debt they had taken on in the meantime resulted in a Band E rating for the latest injection of capital. The company believe the benefits the funding will reap is going to significantly increase their income which encouraged me to bid.

Defaulted loan: My loan to a fashion retailer has been set to "Defaulted" as they are 4 months behind with their repayments. Although there have been some scares, this is the first loan I have had that has gone to a defaulted status since April. The borrower had advised that he was trying to sell the business to pay off the loan but this does not appear to have happened.

I always look back and wonder whether I could have spotted the likelihood of default when investing. The company had experienced a decline in high street sales but were looking for capital to boost their web-presence which they expected to grow. My faith in their optimism didn't turn out to be justified. However, to get good rates of return – I was earning 13.3% on this loan – you have to take risks but those risks have to be spread as much as possible. I have invested in close to 400 businesses on Funding Circle, which is my largest exposure on any platform, so a few can be expected to fail. Each investment is small enough not have a major impact on my capital in isolation.

FundingKnight

Lent to Date: £22,311,500 – growth of £590,000 (2.72%) since 6th August which is more than double the growth recorded in the previous fortnight.

1 loan currently requires funding

Highlighted Loan: A recent new loan listed on this platform was for an independent insurance intermediary firm who are planning to switch their call centre staff from commission payments to a salary scheme. They expect to reduce business overheads by making this change but required £30,000 to undertake the implementation.

Platform news: FundingKnight have made it cheaper for investors to use their secondary market – The Loan Exchange. Fees are not charged for loan parts purchased and the charges for sellers have been reduced to 0.5%.

FundingSecure

Lent to Date: £10,694,854 – Figure updated by FundingSecure at the start of each month

There were 2 loans listed on the site on the morning of 20th August but two further investment opportunities were due to appear very soon having had their loan offers accepted by the borrowers.

Highlighted Loan: A good rate of 14% pa was available to all investors for a loan of £15,000 secured against a Malaya Garnet gemstone. Usually, minimum returns are 12% pa on this site but the reason for the higher rate on offer is because there is already £45,000 lent by FundingSecure against the item therefore new lenders would only have a second charge in the event of the borrower experiencing financial difficulties. Nonetheless as the gemstone has been independently valued at £90,000 the LTV for the combined total of the loans is still quite low at 67%.

Money & Co

Lent to Date: £6 million approx. (latest available figure) 

A single loan for £1/4 million is currently open on this site. The loan is to provide growth capital to a Facilities Management service provider within the restaurant and pub sector. A return of 8.5% pa is expected for investors. Security is offered from a debenture rather than a personal guarantee.

rebuildingsociety

Lent to Date: £7,564,885 – growth of £210,040 since 6th Aug (almost 3%)

The platform has one loan requiring funding which we highlighted in the last blog: A Business Services company operating in the leisure industry wish to borrow £125,000 to enable them to grow. There is a director guarantee and the company claims to have consistently delivered net profits of over £100,000. At the time of writing, the average rate for this auction is a rather spectacular 16.6% pa but, despite this, it is still only just over 50% funded.

ThinCats

Lent to Date: £124,545,000 – an increase of £2 million since 6th August. Growth has been 1.7% in each of the past two fortnights. This is down from the 3%+ plus increase during July probably due to it being the Summer holiday period. 

I expect to be reporting higher growth in the next fortnight as there are currently 9 loans in the Primary Market which is up from 5 two weeks ago.

Highlighted Loan: A property developer has two loan requests with target rates of 12% and 10% to develop a location in Manchester which will have a retail unit and 20 apartments. As well as a first and only charge on the development the borrower is offering a personal guarantee.

Invest & Fund

Lent to Date: Over £1 million

Platform has 3 loans available

Highlighted Loan: A business which provides a complaints handling service to small and medium sized travel agents requires £6,000 to fund an IT Upgrade. Average rate is 10.69% pa

LendingCrowd

Lent to Date: Over £1.25 million in total

There are currently 2 loans available to investors.

Highlighted Loan: A Scottish haulage company requires expansion funding of £50,000 to purchase another business. Average rate for those invested so far is just over 10% pa.

ArchOver

Lent to Date: £6,255,000 – no change since 6th August.

There are no loans currently available for investment.

Platform News: ArchOver have teamed up with Asset Match to create a secondary market to enable investors to sell their loans. Asset Match's core business is as a share trading platform but ArchOver have been able to take advantage of their technical know-how to enable loans to be sold.

PERSONAL P2P LENDING

Zopa

Lent to Date:  £1.004 Billion – an increase of £22 million (2.29%) since 6th August.

The increases of over £20 million per fortnight has taken this platform beyond the 1 Billion mark!

Returns: Interest rates are 3.8% to 5% depending on the length of the investment.

Capital is covered by a Provision Fund

Ratesetter

Lent to Date: £746,526,729 – an increase of £15 million since 6th August

Returns: Interest rates are set according to supply and demand. They currently range from 3.2% to 6% depending on the length of the investment.

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: £12,655,668 – an increase of almost £0.7 million since 6th August

Returns: 4.8% and 6.3% for 3 and 5 year investments respectively.

As well as a Provision Fund to cover investor's funds, 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.