UK p2p lending company Ratesetter says its partnership with mobile operator giffgaff is very successful in driving loan demand. The partnership began in the end of 2013 and allows giffgaff to offer handsets to customers without an immediate upfront payment based on joint credit and fraud management technology.
Ratesetter says ‘The number of giffgaff loans doubled month-on-month in April’. Rhydian Lewis, CEO and Founder of RateSetter, said: ‘Our ground-breaking partnership with giffgaff shows the potential within the P2P sector to power a whole range of consumer services, starting with mobile phones, …’. A spokesperson from giffgaff, said: ”This initiative has been revolutionary for our member base. We are now able to offer mobile handsets through our website, based on the easy provision of cost-effective loans provided by other members of the public. … ‘.
Bondora is now authorised and regulated by the UK based Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The FCA supervised peer-to-peer lending license is the only regime available anywhere in Europe that subjects peer lenders under regulatory oversight, supervising peer lending companies. Bondora is one of the selected few peer lenders who is now operating under a license and probably the first non-UK p2p lending company licensed by FCA.
“The authorisation and regulation are good news for our customers across Europe,†commented the CEO of Bondora, Pärtel Tomberg and added that customers will greatly benefit from the supervision of the FCA as well as the additional requirements Bondora needs to comply with in order to maintain the authorisation. “We are likely the only peer lender outside of UK who obtained this authorisation and this type of regulation is something that we have been looking forward for a number of years,†added Tomberg.
The interim licence increases the strength of the company by making sure that Bondora complies with the rules set by the regulator. These regulations will ensure that Bondora and other regulated peer to peer lenders provide a more secure, transparent and sustainable service to its customers. These provisions include among others conduct of business rules (in particular, around disclosure and promotions), minimum capital requirements, client money protection rules, dispute resolution rules and a requirement for Bondora to take reasonable steps to ensure existing loans continue to be administered if the firm goes out of business. Bondora already complies with most of the regulations however there is a transitional period during which all processes need to be made compliant with the standards required.
Until now Bondora, as well as most other peer lenders, operated without a specific license and regulation since a suitable regulatory regime did simply not exist. The UK based Financial Conduct Authority started issuing specific peer licences from April 2014.
Bondora is the meeting place that unites investors and borrowers from all corners of the world. Bondora provides easy access to two mutually beneficial solutions: borrowers find the best available financing with affordable monthly payments, while investors generate profit on loan interest. The company serves more than 90 000 Customers from 29 different countries and has issued over 16 million EUR in loans and its users have earned more than 1.6 million EUR in interest income. Continue reading →
Prosper had a very good April. In UK especially the platforms for property secured lending grew their volume compared to last month. I added two new services to the table. 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 April 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.
In December 2013 I saw the pitch of a promising pre-launch UK p2p lending startup called Landbay pitching on the UK p2p equity platform Seedrs to the crowd. The pitch explained how they planned to do p2p lending secured by property in the UK. I liked the proposal and invested a small amount in Landbay shares.
Since then the founders John Goodall and Gray Stern have been busy. They launched the site in public beta, succeeded in winning former Zopa co-founder James Alexander for their advisory board and managed to get featured on Techcrunch.
They also kept investors updated about their progress. A few days ago I got a 21 page report about the current state and future plans.
Now Landbay is raising a second round from the crowd
Landbay raised capital in a few hours on the weekend in a second SEIS eligible round on Seedrs from the existing shareholders. Landbay raised 81,647 GBP for a 6% equity stake. That’s a valuation of 1.28M GBP (up from 0.62M GBP in first round). To avoid dilution investors from the first round had the right to invest into this new round first.
Now there is a 2.96% equity round – EIS eligible – aiming to raise 41,456 GBP (1.36M valuation).
If you are interested you don’t need to be a UK resident. Just sign up at Seedrs and follow the process. If you are outside of the UK, I recommend using Transferwise, when depositing money in order to reduce currency transfer fees significantly. I think this round will close within days, maybe even hours, so if you are interested you need to be quick.
This article is not an investment advice. Investing in startups bears significant risks, including total loss of investment.
Funding Circle announced that starting May 1st they will do a one month trial offering randomly selected loans as ‘whole loans’ to selected institutional investors on a first come first served basis.
Announcement:
It’s been a fantastic start to the year at Funding Circle. The announcement of additional funding by the Government-backed British Business Bank and the introduction of regulation by the FCA helped to drive a record quarter of lending, with more than £53 million lent to small businesses across the UK – more than two and a half times the amount during the same period of 2013.
At Funding Circle our goal is to build a better financial world by helping as many businesses as possible to access finance, and investors to earn attractive returns.
Over the last few months you will have seen an increase in lending opportunities with record levels of demand from businesses across the UK. Within the next 12 months we expect demand to increase substantially, and our aim over the next few years is to grow to become a significant part of the small business lending market. In the UK, this is an estimated £7.5bn per month market.
To achieve this we want to ensure we have a diverse range of investors at Funding Circle. More investors helps us to attract more businesses, as we have seen from the Government’s involvement. This helps to deliver more lending opportunities for everyone and ensures long-term stability and sustainability for the Funding Circle marketplace.
As you will probably be aware, we have mentioned before that there is a lot of interest from organisations, such as pension funds, insurance companies, family offices and hedge funds, to join Funding Circle to lend.
We have been considering the best way to introduce these new types of investors to the marketplace in a way that is sustainable and also protects the experience of individual investors.
As part of our considerations we have closely followed the developments of the US peer-to-peer lending market over the last 18 months, where larger investors have purchased whole loans rather than lots of individual loan parts. This has shown to us that introducing the ability for investors to buy whole loans is a successful way of creating more lending opportunities for everyone, whilst also protecting individual investors’ Funding Circle experience.
Today we’re announcing that from early May we will be starting a one month ‘whole loans’ trial with a small group of non-bank financial institutions who will lend up to £3m in total. These whole loans will be purchased in full and it will not be possible for individual loan parts to be purchased, as is the case with the ‘partial loans’ that are listed today.
Initially, this will be a closed trial and last for one month beginning 1st May. During the trial whole loans will not be visible on the marketplace; however we will continue to publish details of every loan in our loan book and clearly indicate whether a loan is a whole loan or a partial loan.
While we anticipate most investors will continue to prefer lending on partial loans, once the trial has been successfully completed we will make whole loans available to any interested investors. You can register your interest after the trial by contacting us …
March brought growth for the major p2p lending services. Ratesetter managed to pass Zopa and Funding Circle in newly originated loan volume in the UK. I added one new service to the table. Note that I have switched the reporting currency to Euro as all but two services are located in Europe. Several p2p lending services reached major figures for total loan volume funded since inception:
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 March 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.
