UK

Non Standard Finance Intends To Raise 100M Pound to Acquire Alternative Finance Companies

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Holding company Non-Standard Finance intends to raise around 100 million GBP  on the London stock market in order to acquire and operate alternative financial services companies focused on the UK’s non-standard customers.

The group, founded by former Provident Financial chairman John van Kuffeler, has already received a cornerstone investment of 48 million GBP from investors including Woodford Investment Management LLP,
Invesco Asset Management Limited and Marathon Asset Management.

NSF intends to enable its acquired companies or businesses to realise their growth potential through scaling of IT, capital, compliance and finance platforms. The Company has been set up as a vehicle to acquire at least one (and preferably two or three) target companies or businesses in the UK non-standard consumer finance sector. Once the Company has made and combined these acquisitions so that it is a substantial operating entity, its intention is to expand through further acquisitions in the sector in the UK and possibly elsewhere.

Out of over 100 non-standard lending businesses in the UK, the Directors have identified around 20 companies that could be of interest to the Company. The Directors are currently interested in pursuing acquisitions in the following sub-sectors: guaranteed loans, consumer loans, rent to own and home collected credit, all of which are in non-standard unsecured consumer finance. Continue reading →

International P2P Lending Services – Loan Volumes January 2015

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Most major services grew the originated loan volume in January. Prosper, like Lending Club before, no longer makes data available for the recent month.  Funding Circle passed the milestone of 500M GBP lent since inception, while Auxmoney crossed 150M EUR. I added Investly and Mintos. I do monitor development of p2p lending figures for many markets. Since I already have most of the data on file I can publish statistics on the monthly loan originations for selected p2p lending services.
Investors living in markets with no or limited choice of local p2p lending services can check this list of marketplaces open to international investors.


Table: P2P Lending Volumes in January 2015. Source: own research
Note that volumes have been converted from local currency to Euro for the sake of comparison. Some figures are estimates/approximations.

Notice to p2p lending services not listed:
If you want to be included in this chart in future, please email the following figures on the first working day of a month: total loan volume originated since inception, loan volume originated in previous month, number of loans originated in previous month, average nominal interest rate of loans originated in previous month.

RBS starts Referring SMEs to Funding Circle and Assetz Capital

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The Royal Bank of Scotland has today announced that it is set to give thousands of small British businesses greater access to finance by formally referring customers to the p2p lending marketplaces Funding Circle and Assetz Capital.
From next week customers, who the bank is unable to financially help at the moment, will be signposted to both Funding Circle and Assetz Capital as options of alternative sources of finance. RBS accounts for 33% of the small business lending market, so is set to become the largest lender to refer small business customers. As well as this, after having explored Invoice Finance, Asset Finance, the Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme and the Regional Growth Fund, customers will be asked to visit the BBA’s dedicated website which also offers additional support.

The bank’s aim is to expand choice for customers whose loan applications do not meet the bank’s criteria, by signposting them to 2-5 peer-to-business lenders (P2B) alongside other alternative finance sources. This will happen through conversations that the customer will have with a relationship manager or through documents included with correspondence.

Groupama Banque to Lend 100M via Unilend

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Today p2c lending marketplace Unilend and Groupama Banque announce a partnership wherein Groupama Banque will lend directly 100 million euros to French small and medium enterprises through Unilend over the next four years. This is a first time ever partnership between a French bank and Unilend, a French p2p lending marketplace.

Bernard Pouy, CEO of Groupama Banque, said: “this ambitious partnership will allow Groupama Banque to sustain the growth of French businesses all across the country”. Nicolas Lesur, CEO and co-founder of Unilend, added: “this is a key milestone for Unilend, the marketplace lending industry and the financial sector more generally”.

Through Unilend, Groupama Banque will have the opportunity to lend money directly to the businesses of its choice alongside Unilend’s lenders. Groupama Banque, a subsidiary of mutual benefit insurance company Groupama, counts 536,000 clients all across France. Groupama’s values are social responsibility, proximity and solidarity and ”this partnership with Unilend is just another illustration of these values”, according to Sylvain Burel, in charge of Groupama’s communication.
Unilend has originated 7.5M EUR of loans since inception in December 2013 from 3,000 registered lenders.

Victory Park Capital to lend 150 million GBP via AssetzCapital

In a similar arrangement announced today, US private equity company Victory Park Capital will lend 150 million pound via AssetzCapital marketplace in the next 5 years.

International P2P Lending Services – Loan Volumes December 2014

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Several p2p lending marketplaces managed to grow the loan originations in December despite the Christmas season. Especially Prosper had a record month.  I added one more service. I do monitor development of p2p lending figures for many markets. Since I already have most of the data on file I can publish statistics on the monthly loan originations for selected p2p lending services.
Investors living in markets with no or limited choice of local p2p lending services can check this list of marketplaces open to international investors.


Table: P2P Lending Volumes in December 2014. Source: own research
Note that volumes have been converted from local currency to Euro for the sake of comparison. Some figures are estimates/approximations.

Notice to p2p lending services not listed:
If you want to be included in this chart in future, please email the following figures on the first working day of a month: total loan volume originated since inception, loan volume originated in previous month, number of loans originated in previous month, average nominal interest rate of loans originated in previous month.

International P2P Lending Services – Loan Volumes November 2014

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November was a month of mixed results for the listed p2p lending services. Some grew, some had a small decline in newly originated loan volume this month. Ratesetter crossed a total volume of 400 million GBP originated since inception. Ablrate profited from the deal with the first institutional investor, which boosted volume. I added one more service.  I do monitor development of p2p lending figures for many markets. Since I already have most of the data on file I can publish statistics on the monthly loan originations for selected p2p lending services.


Table: P2P Lending Volumes in November 2014. Source: own research
Note that volumes have been converted from local currency to Euro for the sake of comparison. Some figures are estimates/approximations.

Notice to p2p lending services not listed:
If you want to be included in this chart in future, please email the following figures on the first working day of a month: total loan volume originated since inception, loan volume originated in previous month, number of loans originated in previous month, average nominal interest rate of loans originated in previous month.