P2P Lending Platform News Round-up

by The Secret Investor

Leaders from the P2P arena are recognised in the New Year's Honours List… FundingSecure sets new records and finds funding for their first £1 million+ loan… The Secret Investor looks to InvestUP to further diversify his portfolio

Totals lent to date (7th January 2016)

*All data correct at the time this blog was compiled

LOANS TO BUSINESSES

Assetz Capital – £86,376,589
Funding Circle - £1,013,504,300
FundingKnight - £29,086,500
FundingSecure - £20,444,624
Money & Co –  £6 million approx
Rebuildingsociety - £8,567,425
ThinCats - £146,765,000
Invest and Fund - £1 million plus
LendingCrowd - £3.7 million
ArchOver - £10,915,000

PERSONAL P2P LENDING

Zopa - £1,240,000,000
RateSetter - £970,992,526

Lending Works - £19,124,183

…………..

LOANS TO BUSINESS

Assetz Capital  

Lent to Date: £86,376,589 – no change.

While there was a flourish just before Christmas with a number of loans being drawn-down, it has been a quiet start to the year on this platform with 2 loans upcoming (and these have been open to investors for a number of months) while all existing loans are fully funded with the exception of a couple.

One of the upcoming loans was scheduled to be drawn-down tomorrow (8th January).

There are also 3 managed accounts protected by provision funds with returns of 3.75% to 7% depending on accessibility.

Platform News: The cap on the total size of the very popular Quick Access Account – the closest thing to a P2P Instant Access Bank Account but with a much higher return of 3.75% pa – has increased to £5m. Individuals are restricted to investing no more than £50k.

Funding Circle

Lent to Date: £1,013,504,300 – increase of £10,784,120 – 1.08% growth.

Even during the Christmas period, Funding Circle were able to distribute over £10 million to borrowers.

There were 39 auctions taking place when this blog was compiled.

Secret Investor's Activity: The loans that offer the highest returns get filled very quickly on this site therefore I have switched on Auto-Bid to pick up my share of C, D & E rated deals. Below is a summary of my activity in the past fortnight.

Accepted:

Loan of £104k to refurbish a service station (D risk rating, 14.1% return). Borrower's accounts indicate they have £2 million of turnover.

Loan of £37k to build a shelter at a beach cafe (C risk rating, 11.9% return). Hopefully it will generate more trade as the borrower hopes.

Loan of £25k to refurbish the premises of a fine food and confectionery business (C risk rating, 11.9% return). Established business

Loan of £35k to children's shoe shop looking to expand (C risk rating, 11.9% return). Award winning business and impressive reply in the Q&A

Loan of £87k to fund the expansion of a garage (C risk rating, 11.9% return). Established, profitable business.

Rejects:

Lighting business looking to raise £260k (C risk rating, 11.6% return). I get nervous with large sums. This company also made a significant loss recently and provided no explanation when asked in the Q&A.

Wheeling and dealing: The loans mentioned in the last blog which refused to sell at a 0.5% premium both found buyers when I relisted them with a 0.1% mark-up.

Defaults: None of the loans I have invested in (over 400 on this site) were set to a default status in the past fortnight however the business of one of my borrowers appears to have received a winding up petition. They are not behind with their repayments so hopefully I won't lose too much on this investment.

Platform News: FundingCircle are celebrating as CEO Samir Desai received a CBE in the New Year's Honours list for his contribution to the financial services sector.

The platform has launched an app for the iPhone to enable investors to manage their portfolios on the go.

FundingKnight

Lent to Date: £29,086,500 – increase of £440,000 – 1.54% growth.

There weren't any auctions listed when this blog was compiled.

FundingSecure

Lent to Date: £20,444,624 – monthly increase of £2,683,000 – 15.11% growth. Figure updated at the start of each month.

This site continues to go from strength to strength. Having forged relationships with a number of new brokers towards the end of 2015, this led to December being their busiest month on record.

On the day this blog was compiled, 3 loans were available to invest in however as all were only for 4 figure sums, it took no time for them to be fully funded.

Highlighted Loans: FundingSecure's largest ever loan was due to be drawn-down as this blog was compiled. £1.25m was borrowed and secured against a property in Poole valued at £1.8m, delivering a LTV of 66.6%. Interestingly, unlike other high value loans listed on the site, no bonuses were offered for those pledging larger amounts of capital. A flat rate of 12% pa was available.

Money & Co

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

There were no auctions taking place when this report was compiled.

rebuildingsociety

Lent to Date: £8,567,425 – latest figure available.

There was 1 active auction active on this site when this blog was compiled.

I shall be withdrawing funds from ReBS and moving them to InvestUp from where I will distribute my capital back to this site and also to others enabling me to achieve greater diversity.

Highlighted Loan: An automotive company is looking to raise £93k to fund expansion as the business moves from making prototype parts to providing finished products. This is quite a significant change and, reflecting the risk involved, investors were able to earn over 19% pa. Security was provided by a personal guarantee.

ThinCats

Lent to Date: £146,765,000 – increase of £906,000 – 0.62% growth.

3 loans are available to invest in.

Highlighted Loan: Funding was required for the installation of a wind turbine which has a guarantee of government subsidies over the next 20 years. The loan is for 36 months and, with a first charge over the site, has an initial LTV of 69% which will reduce by 10% over the 3 year term. Investers will earn 9.75% with 5% of the capital being paid back each year. This looks like quite a safe proposition.

Invest & Fund

Lent to Date: Over £1 million

No new loans have been added to the platform since the New Year however Invest & Fund have advised that further loans are in the pipeline.

LendingCrowd

Lent to Date: Over £3.7 million when the site last updated their figures.

There were 2 auctions taking place when this blog was compiled.

Highlighted Loan: A home security wholesaler looked to borrow £50,000 to pay off an existing loan and purchase a mobile shop. Lending Crowd gave the business a Class A rating which meant, after a few days of being listed on the site, the average interest rate that investors had bid was just below 10%. I had some concerns as the loan being paid off had a lower interest rate than this, although it had a shorter term, and there is a risk that the mobile shop might not be a success therefore I put in a bid at 11%. Should I be undercut, I won't be too concerned.

ArchOver

Lent to Date: £10,915,000 – no change in the past fortnight.

There was 1 auction taking place when this blog was compiled.

The most frequent borrower on the site – a company providing credit to SMEs – was raising £100k via 1 loan with an interest rate of 6.5%. This return is less than loans on many other sites in this section of the blog but the risks are also much lower as in addition to security via a first, floating charge on the borrower's Accounts Receivable, the loan is also insured.

The low risk is underlined by the fact that no loans have defaulted on this site.

INVESTUP PORTFOLIO

There were 7 loan auctions taking place when this blog was compiled.

During 2016 I plan to build up a portfolio via the InvestUP platform because this has over 20 partnering sites.

My first investment was a listing from Crowd2Fund for a luxury boat builder looking to raise £100k of growth capital over 5 years. A return of 11% pa was offered. Although the business is relatively young, this was the first time they had undertaken any form of borrowing (funding so far had been from the MD's own pocket) and the sum involved was small in relation to the finished boats. Hopefully they will find as many buyers as they anticipate.

As ever, my investment is a tiny fraction of the total, but those with greater funds at their disposal had the chance to purchase the company's products at a substantial discount or have a week's free charter.

PERSONAL P2P LENDING

Zopa

Lent to Date:  £1.24 Billion – increase of £20 million – 1.64% growth.

Returns: Interest rates are 3.8% to 5% depending on the length of the investment. These are unchanged from a fortnight ago.

Zopa distribute investor's money mostly to unsecured consumer loans however capital is covered by a Provision Fund.

Platform News: Executive Chairman, Giles Andrews, received an OBE in the New Year's Honours list for being a Peer to Peer and Financial Inclusion Innovator.

Ratesetter

Lent to Date: £970,992,526 – increase of £15,327,337 – 1.6% growth.

Returns: Interest rates are set according to supply and demand. They currently range from 3.2% to 5.9% depending on the length of the investment, the latter is slightly down on a fortnight ago.

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: £19,124,183 – increase of £508,383 – 2.73% growth.

Returns: 4.7% and 6.1% for 3 and 5 year investments respectively – unchanged from a fortnight ago.

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.