Peer-to-peer lending sites: MSE guide discussion

Albermarle

masonic said:

Where is the money to fund these new loans going to come from? At the same time many customers are struggling to pull their existing money out of the platform.

“As a marketplace lender, we are funded by a portfolio of institutions as well as tens of thousands of retail investors. CBILS, necessarily, will only be funded by institutional investors and these currently include UK and European banks, specialist credit funds and our dedicated institutional investment fund. We look forward to originating and managing these new loans for those institutional investors as the country begins its journey to recovery over coming months. 
So no direct involvement from retail lenders, but it will generate fees for the platform and help keep the show on the road.

KeepOnKnitting

Just in case anyone else is searching for the answer as I was almost a fortnight ago, the loan sale from Zopa I requested on April 1st is now being actioned. Effectively it has taken about 6.5 weeks to withdraw from Zopa and sale costs are about 4.7% of the withdrawal amount.

where_are_we

Albermarle said:

Some good P2P news amongst the gloom ?
Assetz Capital are  delighted to have been approved for accreditation by British Business Bank as a lender under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS).The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, delivered through 60+ British Business Bank accredited lenders, is designed to support the continued provision of finance to UK smaller businesses (SMEs) during the Covid-19 outbreak. The scheme enables lenders to provide facilities of up to £5m to smaller businesses across the UK who are experiencing lost or deferred revenues, leading to disruptions to their cashflow.
It will not help Assetz lenders directly , but will give the platform some revenue from lending money to new borowers , so should help to keep it afloat . Plus it is a vote of confidence in their business practices to get the accreditation I guess.

Gradually unravelling my Assetz Capital position (about 1% of total assets) after some "good" years. In withdrawal queue for 90 day Access Account. My GBBA 2 account is running down and I am withdrawing cash from it as it is released. Should I sell my remaining GBBA 2 loan holdings in the secondary market or is it too late? I am not overwhelmed by the above accreditation news. AC have also introduced a lender membership fee of .9% (annual rate) for 3 months (I would imagine it will continue for longer) - will this keep the "ship floating"?

granta

LoanPad update
I had their 60 day Premium account product and gave notice 60 days ago to withdraw funds. The cash has appeared in my account and was able to withdraw immediately. No delay. Was surprised as was expecting it to go into a queue like Ratesetter!

quirkydeptless

The P2P platforms that come out the other side of the tunnel on this will have gain some kudos for showing they can survive this event. Whether that will restore this forums faith in P2P, well that reamins to be seen.

My £200 Growth Street sign up bonus got paid Today. I'd mentally written off getting that, so kudos to Growth Street

However, due to their declared liquidity event, my money has to stay invested with them, so it's time for the white knuckle ride of "not normal market confitions"

DiggerUK

I don't know the percentage of P2P business that covers loans for cars, businesses and business or domestic property. I do know there are many advertisements for P2P investors in car loans.
It seems few have been keeping up with current economic news. The warning signs to get out of P2P while you can seem to be downplayed and ignored around here..._

Albermarle

DiggerUK said:

I don't know the percentage of P2P business that covers loans for cars, businesses and business or domestic property. I do know there are many advertisements for P2P investors in car loans.
It seems few have been keeping up with current economic news. The warning signs to get out of P2P while you can seem to be downplayed and ignored around here..._

I think the car loans are a separate/specific type of business and I do not think most of the main P2P platforms are that involved in that sector. Can be some personal loans that have been used to buy cars of course. Property is a big part of P2P as is lending to small businesses, so it is obviously going to be a difficult time . Hopefully the actions taken by some platforms , such as restricting withdrawals , diverting interest to provision funds, taking interest haircuts etc will mean they come out the other side.
Despite the noise on here and on the P2P forum , the stats seem to show that most investors ( retail and institutional ) are actually sitting tight and hoping for the best.

Sailtheworld

quirkydeptless said:

The P2P platforms that come out the other side of the tunnel on this will have gain some kudos for showing they can survive this event. Whether that will restore this forums faith in P2P, well that reamins to be seen.

My £200 Growth Street sign up bonus got paid Today. I'd mentally written off getting that, so kudos to Growth Street

However, due to their declared liquidity event, my money has to stay invested with them, so it's time for the white knuckle ride of "not normal market confitions"

They're obviously in trouble. If a physical financial institution did this I don't think you be congratulating them - you'd be in the queue outside the door like everyone else. There's a run on P2P. Their t&cs mean it's a slow run but it's a run nonetheless.

Sailtheworld

Albermarle said:

DiggerUK said:

I don't know the percentage of P2P business that covers loans for cars, businesses and business or domestic property. I do know there are many advertisements for P2P investors in car loans.
It seems few have been keeping up with current economic news. The warning signs to get out of P2P while you can seem to be downplayed and ignored around here..._

Despite the noise on here and on the P2P forum , the stats seem to show that most investors ( retail and institutional ) are actually sitting tight and hoping for the best.

Do they have many other choices?

Albermarle

Sailtheworld said:

Albermarle said:

DiggerUK said:

I don't know the percentage of P2P business that covers loans for cars, businesses and business or domestic property. I do know there are many advertisements for P2P investors in car loans.
It seems few have been keeping up with current economic news. The warning signs to get out of P2P while you can seem to be downplayed and ignored around here..._

Despite the noise on here and on the P2P forum , the stats seem to show that most investors ( retail and institutional ) are actually sitting tight and hoping for the best.

Do they have many other choices?

Well sort of - you have a choice on some platforms between
Sitting in a huge queue waiting for ages/getting dribs and drabs/selling at a big discount, whilst at the same time complaining bitterly on forums that  they can not immediately get their money out even though it is clearly not 'normal market conditions' 
Or just accept this was a known risk with P2P, and let the platforms get on with trying to survive and hope that a years lost interest will be the worst outcome. 
I suppose your attitude would depend on if you had stuck to the advice about multiple platforms and no more than 5% of investable income , or not.....