Loanpad P2P - Reviews, experiences, info or updates, post them here. I'm having a dabble.

Sea_Shell

Loanpad now have 3300 lenders.    I think when I joined it was at about 3217.   So that is steady (and I hope sustainable) growth of the platform.

I have now got £1200 with them.

Sea_Shell

Impressed by the update email received today.

Very informative, with actual updates, not just corporate "fluff".

atw_uss

I am similar to you @Sea_Shell and have a smallish investment with Loanpad. All looks good so far, and I agree that communication has been good (especially regarding the defaulted loan that has now been repaid).

Sea_Shell

It looks like some additional "since inception" loan data has been added to their data dashboard.

Sea_Shell

Sea_Shell said:

Loanpad now have 3300 lenders.    I think when I joined it was at about 3217.   So that is steady (and I hope sustainable) growth of the platform.

I have now got £1200 with them.

Now 3402 lenders.

Going to be putting an additional £2k in this week.

Aceace

Sea_Shell said:

Sea_Shell said:

Loanpad now have 3300 lenders.    I think when I joined it was at about 3217.   So that is steady (and I hope sustainable) growth of the platform.

I have now got £1200 with them.

Now 3402 lenders.

Going to be putting an additional £2k in this week.

Someone's had a good Christmas! 😉

Sea_Shell

I recently received the following e-mail from Loanpad.    Are they basically saying that because I've now made a few small deposits and investments with them I am able to now self-certify as an "sophisticated" investor? 

Would it be in my benefit to now change it, so as to avoid them ever wanting "proof" that my holdings DON'T represent more than 10% of my investable assets?    They don't, and probably won't for some time (if ever), but it would be a pain (and a little intrusive) to have to prove that.


"Following the introduction of Financial Conduct Authority rules on 09 December 2019, you kindly confirmed your investor type with Loanpad as a Restricted Investor.

We have received a number of queries in respect of investor types and thought it would be helpful to clarify some key points.

We want to clarify that your decision on investor type has no impact on your service, your regulatory rights or any investor protection.

In practice, being a Restricted Investor means that you have never invested in peer-to-peer lending or you have invested only once. “Restricted” also means that you commit to limiting your investment in peer-to-peer lending to 10% of your investable assets until you have more experience.

As a result, as time progresses, we may require evidence that your investment in Loanpad only constitutes less than 10% of your investable assets.

By way of example, based on data that we hold, we have noticed that many of our Restricted Investors meet the criteria for Self-Certified Sophisticated based on the number of investments in Loanpad alone.

Following investor feedback, you are now able to amend your investor type by logging into My Account and clicking on Personal Details.

We provide further detail on each investor type when you seek to amend your investor type so that you can choose the most appropriate option."

Malthusian

Are they basically saying that because I've now made a few small deposits and investments with them I am able to now self-certify as an "sophisticated" investor?

I was about to say that was rubbish but what do you know, they appear to be right, based on the second of the four possible criteria to be a self-certified sophisticated investor: "I have made more than one investment in an unlisted company in the two years prior to the date below."

The other three possible criteria are to be a member of a business angel syndicate, to be a professional private equity / commercial SME finance professional, or to be the director of a company with a turnover of at least £1 million.

Can anyone spot the odd one out? Make a small investment into a P2P platform under the "restricted investor" loophole, and presto, regardless of your knowledge or experience of commercial finance, suddenly you're a sophisticated investor and forfeit all regulatory protection designed to dissuade retail investors from investing all their money in loans to obscure unlisted borrowers.

Slightly late to say this now, but Loanpad is not "somewhere between cash and an S&S ISA" - lending money to an obscure micro-cap bridging lender is inherently much higher risk than an investment spread across thousands of billion-pound companies across the world and government debt, which is what most people are thinking of when they talk about stocks and shares ISAs.

(If I took you literally then a P2P investment can't be "somewhere between cash and an S&S ISA" in terms of risk, because it's a bit like saying that a beer is between water and a bottle in terms of alcoholic strength. It depends on what you put in the ISA / bottle. But that would be pedantry.)

Sea_Shell

Malthusian said:

Are they basically saying that because I've now made a few small deposits and investments with them I am able to now self-certify as an "sophisticated" investor?

I was about to say that was rubbish but what do you know, they appear to be right, based on the second of the four possible criteria to be a self-certified sophisticated investor: "I have made more than one investment in an unlisted company in the two years prior to the date below."

The other three possible criteria are to be a member of a business angel syndicate, to be a professional private equity / commercial SME finance professional, or to be the director of a company with a turnover of at least £1 million.

Can anyone spot the odd one out? Make a small investment into a P2P platform under the "restricted investor" loophole, and presto, regardless of your knowledge or experience of commercial finance, suddenly you're a sophisticated investor and forfeit all regulatory protection designed to dissuade retail investors from investing all their money in loans to obscure unlisted borrowers.

Slightly late to say this now, but Loanpad is not "somewhere between cash and an S&S ISA" - lending money to an obscure micro-cap bridging lender is inherently much higher risk than an investment spread across thousands of billion-pound companies across the world and government debt, which is what most people are thinking of when they talk about stocks and shares ISAs.

(If I took you literally then a P2P investment can't be "somewhere between cash and an S&S ISA" in terms of risk, because it's a bit like saying that a beer is between water and a bottle in terms of alcoholic strength. It depends on what you put in the ISA / bottle. But that would be pedantry.)

I didn't think it had any regulatory protection!! 🤣

(Or none that should be relied on)

Aceace

Sea_Shell said:

Malthusian said:

Are they basically saying that because I've now made a few small deposits and investments with them I am able to now self-certify as an "sophisticated" investor?

I was about to say that was rubbish but what do you know, they appear to be right, based on the second of the four possible criteria to be a self-certified sophisticated investor: "I have made more than one investment in an unlisted company in the two years prior to the date below."

The other three possible criteria are to be a member of a business angel syndicate, to be a professional private equity / commercial SME finance professional, or to be the director of a company with a turnover of at least £1 million.

Can anyone spot the odd one out? Make a small investment into a P2P platform under the "restricted investor" loophole, and presto, regardless of your knowledge or experience of commercial finance, suddenly you're a sophisticated investor and forfeit all regulatory protection designed to dissuade retail investors from investing all their money in loans to obscure unlisted borrowers.

Slightly late to say this now, but Loanpad is not "somewhere between cash and an S&S ISA" - lending money to an obscure micro-cap bridging lender is inherently much higher risk than an investment spread across thousands of billion-pound companies across the world and government debt, which is what most people are thinking of when they talk about stocks and shares ISAs.

(If I took you literally then a P2P investment can't be "somewhere between cash and an S&S ISA" in terms of risk, because it's a bit like saying that a beer is between water and a bottle in terms of alcoholic strength. It depends on what you put in the ISA / bottle. But that would be pedantry.)

I didn't think it had any regulatory protection!! 🤣

(Or none that should be relied on)

I think you've got that about right. 

The Sophisticated Investor criteria aren't there to protect investors, they're an attempt to cover the FCA's ar*e if things go wrong due to their poor attempts at regulation. It's best to only invest based on your own DD on the loans and the platforms, with emphasis on the platforms. 

The FCA are effectively saying that is OK to put your life savings in tesla shares, or risk it all on black at the casino, but it's too risky to put 11% in Loanpad.  IMO, they really should concentrate more on protecting investors when regulated platforms fail, and on education (including educating themselves).

BTW, I agree with your sentiment that Loanpad are a middle ground between FSCS protected savings accounts and S&S investments, but I can't be bothered to have same argument again.