Doing KYC on International Investors and the Potential of Automation

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German id exampleOn the majority of p2p lending marketplaces that accept non-resident international investors, the necessary process to comply with ‘Know Your Customer’ (KYC) rules involves multiple manual steps both on the side of the investor and on the side of the marketplace. After filling in details in forms the investor typically needs to submit scans (or photos) of an ID or a passport. As an investor  I balk at the very few marketplaces that ask me to submit these via unsecured email. The better ones offer an upload inside the SSL secured website after login. The British marketplace typically also require a recent utility bill to confirm address.

Video ident

In continental Europe a few marketplaces are doing video ident. Recently when I registered at Paskoluklubas, aside from entering details in forms I needed to schedule a Skype video call in which I answered several questions and had to show my ID live. While it was straightforward, it is not more time efficient (both for investor and for marketplace). And I was lost for words for a split second when asked for my zodiac. How many non-native-english speakers can answer that question without hesitating for the right word (luckily mine is easy to translate). So there may be a higher drop off in conversion than in the document upload version.

I learned from Paskolulubas that they used video ident not to optimize the process but rather to fulfill Lithuanian regulation requirements: ‘In the end of last year in Lithuania … [a law was passed] which legalized digital identification …. There are just two legal methods to identify clients through digital technologies. The first one is to use special programs, applications or other measures to ensure that the photos execution process is continuous and that the photos transfer in non-real time would be impossible. The second one is video identification when [the] company directly could record customer and his ID document. We chose … [the latter] method because of the following reasons: a. easier control of quality with in house team and b. faster start’.

So Paskolulubas uses inhouse staff to conduct the video ident process.

Outsourcing KYC

In Germany video ident is also an allowed method of identification. And it slowly replaces the traditional Postident process, a longtime German proprietary solution, since it avoids media discontinuity. But usually the video ident process, while integrated in the website is outsourced to a specialized service provider.

Another example of outsoucing is the process Lenndy uses. When registering, all an investor is asked by Lenndy is his email address, nothing else. Then the investor is required to link an Paysera account with at least level 3. Either an existing one or a newly setup one. Paysera is a E-money institution with over 5 million customers. Lendy then imports the customer data, which have been verified by Paysera with the consent of the the customer. While this solution is elegant for Lenndy, Paysera receives mixed reviews by several German investors in p2p lending. But as the search for ‘Paysera’ in the last link shows, actually several p2p lending platforms use Paysera processes to some degree.

All of the above still require mainly manual labor for checking, even if some of the work is outsourced.

Automating KYC for international investors

Last week British Relendex moved from a manual document upload process to an automated process for investors of 7 countries; Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland. Relendex uses the Call Validate solution and checks (in case of Germany) first , middle, last name, gender, phone, address, city and postal code with the data coming from three different data sources and which Relendex says has high match accuracy. Relendex’s criteria was that the data available should be of equal quality and accuracy to that of the UK database.

A Relendex representative told P2P-Banking: ‘With the new process, international lenders from the nine countries could see their account be approved in a matter of minutes. Where previous manual checking could take a couple of days, the automated KYC process is much more efficient.’

Of course there are other solutions. I reached out to other companies for comment. But those who have automated are tight-lipped about details citing proprietary technology and competitive advantages.

Marketplaces that also use automation are welcome to comment and add to this story.

Assetz Capital Review – 30 Days Access Account with 4.75% Target Rate

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Recently I opened an account at p2p lending marketplace Assetz Capital to gain some first hand experiences. Assetz Capital offers secured business loans to small and medium British SMEs. I decided to start with the 30 days access account as it is mostly hands off and deposited a tiny amount, which was credited within an hour. It currently offers a promotional target rate of 4.75% (instead of 4.25%) and allows to withdraw funds with 30 days notice in normal market conditions. Investors, who want to benefit from the promotional rate need to act now, as it is only applicable for deposits made until 11.59am on 6th June 2017 and is valid for a maximum of 90 days from the date of the deposit.

Assetz Capital has a minimum investment amount of 1 GBP. Assetz is open to international investors, but a UK bank account is required. If you do not have one, I suggest opening one at Transferwise. (UPDATE: but do check comment below this article, also see my Transferwise Borderless account article). All Assetz Capital (except the MLIA) investment accounts are protected by a provision fund. There are no fees for investors.

Assetz Capital says the 30 days access account is extremly popular with investors. Since the promotion offer was launched 7 weeks ago, 23 million GBP have been deposited in this account. Assetz also offers a quick access account with 3.75% target rate, designed to provide immediate access to cash, in normal market conditions, for investors. Currently 19 million GBP are invested in this account. Further account types are the ‘Great British Business Account’ (GBBA) with 7% target rate, the ‘Green Energy Income Account’ (GEIA) with 7% target rate and the ‘Manual Loan Investment Account’ (MLIA) with 5.5% to 18% gross rate. See comparison of Assetz accounts. Assetz also features a secondary market without fees providing liquidity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnxw_TvSOj4

International P2P Lending Volumes May 2017

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The table lists the loan originations of p2p lending marketplaces in May. Funding Circle leads ahead of Zopa and Ratesetter. The total volume for the reported marketplaces adds up to 500 million Euro. This is over 10% higher than the previous month and that despite the adverse effect of the pound taking a dive. I track the development of p2p lending volumes 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 platforms. This month I added Paskoluklubas.

Milestones reached this month are:

  • Assetz Capital crosses 250 million GBP lent sinch launch
  • Lendinvest reaches 1 billion GBP in origination since launch

Investors living in national markets with no or limited selection of local p2p lending services can check this list of international investing on p2p lending services. Investors can also explore how to make use of current p2p lending cashback offers available. UK investors can compare IFISA providers.

p2p lending volume May 2017
Table: P2P Lending Volumes in May 2017. Source: own research

Note that volumes have been converted from local currency to Euro for the purpose of comparison. Some figures are estimates/approximations.
*Prosper and Lending Club no longer publish origination data for the most recent month.

Notice to p2p lending services not listed: Continue reading →

New Lendy Cashback Offer 50 GBP for New Customers

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Lendy logoFor investors, that considered using the Lendy platform, but have not yet signed up, now may be a very good time to do so, as Lendy is offering 50 GBP cashback to investors that invest at least 1,000 GBP on the condition that this amount stays invested for at least 3 month. Lendy lists bidge loans secured by commercial property. The interest rates are typically in the range of 7% to 12% and the loan duration is typically 3 to 12 months. Currently a lot of loans are offered on Lendy’s secondary market, which will allow easy diversification into several loans upon signup.

I have been investing on Lendy for 2.5 years now (when I started it was still called Saving Stream) and I reviewed my Lendy portfolio only last month on the blog.

Lendy is open to international investors. While a UK account is not mandatory, I suggest opening a UK bank account online via Transferwise – this will make things easier, if multiple UK marketplaces are used (my article on Transferwise Borderless account).

To get the cashback, just register at Lendy via this link and start investing.

See more p2p lending cashback offers and subscribe to be notified when new cashback offers are listed.

Interview with Evaldas Remeikis, Chairman of the board at UAB NEO Finance, Marketplace Paskoluklubas

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What is Paskoluklubas about?

NEO Finance is the leading P2P lending platform „Paskolų klubas“ in Lithuania. The platform is an intermediary for consumer loans connecting lenders directly with borrowers. We believe that fintech company should be not only innovative, but also professional. This is why we gathered a strong team of senior experts from the banking sector with the expertise in consumer lending, bank management and risk control. Currently all of “NEO Finance” activities are supervised by the Bank of Lithuania due to obtained e-money license, P2P license and as a consumer lender status, to ensure that responsible lending criteria is enforced.

We have a unique platform that we developed our self to fit the needs of our investors. NEO Finance offers buyback and provision fund services, which minimizes risk for lenders. Moreover, partnership with Legal Balance, UAB enables platform’s users to experience the benefits of 7+ years of delinquent loans recovery know-how.

By transferring money to “Paskolu klubas” account investors deposit it into e-money IBAN account under their own name and hold all of the money under their control till the investment is made.

Our main goal is to ensure a sufficient supply of loans are listed in the primary market, so that our investors can cherry-pick the loans adequate to their investment strategy.

What are the three main advantages for investors?

  1. Provision fund service. By voluntarily paying a provision fund fee, more conservative investors can be secured from delinquent or defaulted loans. If a borrower is late with the installment, provision fund immediately covers that installment. The fund holds largest amount of proceeds to cover late payments in the Baltics and holds more than 100 000 EUR at the moment.
  1. Buybacks. Investors, who did not choose the provision fund service, can sell defaulted investments to “Paskolu klubas” for 50-80% of its face value. Instead of waiting for a relatively long recovery process they can reinvest their money into other loans.
  1. Higher interests rates of return. In Lithuania, we operate in market of higher interest rate. Currently our average interest rates are as fallowed for each of the credit rating: A – 13 % B – 17% C – 20%. This creates opportunity for investors from all over the Europe to receive higher returns.

What are the three main advantages for borrowers?

  1. Lower fees for borrowers. As our fees are one of the lowest for borrowers, therefore half of the borrowers choose “Paskolu klubas” loan as an alternative for a bank loan.
  2. Possibility to get an instant loan. Since we developed in-house state-of-the-art IT platform ourselves we can offer unique features for borrowers and investors. One of them is instant loan service. Investors can set up their automatic investment tool and borrowers can see what amount they can borrow at what rates, as the system collects all automatic investment orders starting with the lowest rate and building it up to meet the needs of a borrower. This feature enables investors to invest their capital faster.
  1. No upfront fees. Unlike other platforms Paskolu klubas does not charge upfront fee from borrowers. Borrowers do receive the exact amount they borrow. Platform fee is deducted from the payments, this way we take the risk together with investors and are able to offer barrows flexible barrowing.

What ROI can investors expect?

10-18% after taxes. One investor did an experiment with 4000 EUR initial deposit. Half of the investments were made using a provision fund service, 5 defaulted investments were sold to NEO Finance and some investments were sold in the secondary market with premium. ROI after exactly 1 year was 14% after taxes.

Is the technical platform self-developed?

Yes, this allows us to add various new features and to fit the needs of both – investors and borrowers. We are not only the peer to peer platform, but also a fully licensed e-money institution. This enables us to operate as an online bank with IBAN account numbers and SEPA MMS payments.

Evaldas RemeikisHow is the company financed? Is it profitable?

The company is financed from shareholder’s equity. It is not profitable yet, but we are in operation for only one and a half year. Our current goal is market penetration and market share.

What were/are the main challenges in the Lithuanian market?

When preparing for the launch, we spent a lot of time carefully analyzing Lithuanian and foreign markets. “Paskolu klubas” shareholders and employees have a lot of experience in the financial sector, we also cooperate with the best partners and agencies. This helped us to be prepared, therefore none of the challenges were unexpected.

One of the more significant challenge was financial literacy. Potential investors were not introduced to peer to peer lending before. Therefore, we started an event and training cycle where we educate investors about pros and cons of peer to peer lending.

You launched the company for residents of Lithuania quite some time ago. What prompted you to open up for international investors and launch an English version of the website right now?

From our experience, we knew that establishing consumer loan brand in a market takes at least a year. We focused our effort on becoming the number one platform in Lithuania for the past 18 months, but had strategic plans to open our platform to international investors from the beginning. Currently we can supply enough of quality loans for international investors.

Another reason was it took time to acquire full e-money license. For this we had to make sure we meet international anti-money laundering requirements and international identification requirements. Only after establishing processes, developing the system and meeting those international requirements we are ready to offer opportunity for international investors.

Which marketing channels do you use to attract investors and borrowers?

For investors, we mostly use educational channels where we try not only to advertise, but also to educate people about investment opportunities. In 2016 we organized over 30 events for our investors. We also use partnership of different financing experts who can provide feedback on our platform and receive bonuses for the investors they bring in.

Moreover, word of mouth perfectly works for us, because we have many satisfied investors, who are sharing their experiences and helping us grow.

For the borrowers, we have fully integrated marketing campaign. We use all traditional and digital channels. We invest in brand building and acquiring quality borrowers. This helps us to acquire valuable borrowers, who are worth to invest in.

Where do you see Paskoluklubas in 3 years?

We see Paskolu klubas as a global player in P2P lending sector. We may establish borrowing sites in other countries, but we will localize it as we did with Paskolu klubas in Lithuania. We see advantages of strong brand in each country we operate for borrowers. We are currently on a path of fast growth and we are not looking to slow it down. Our goal for next few years is to be the number one platform for investors in the Baltic states.

Investors can use the Paskoluklubas referral code P2PBANKING when registering and get 10 Euro for their first investments.

P2P-Banking.com thanks Evaldas Remeikis for the interview.

Proplend IFISA Offer Launches Next Week

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proplend logoProperty based p2p lending marketplace Proplend will launch its IFISA offer on May 30th at 9am. Initially the IFISA product will only be made available to those existing investors that had signed up to Proplend until May 26th. The new IFISA investors will have the same choice of loans secured by income producing UK commercial property and the same 1,000 GBP minimum investment opportunities as non-ISA investors. Depending on selected tranche, which differ by LTV, the interest rates range from 6.3% to 9.3%. The Proplend IF ISA will be flexible and allow tranfers in and out.

Since launching in 2014 Proplend has facilitated 11.7 million GBP in loans and has experienced no defaults so far.

There are currently 19 providers listed on the P2P-Banking IFISA comparison table.