BondMason offers to step in on Collateral loans

PEER-TO-PEER investor BondMason has offered to step in and manage the loanbook of the troubled Collateral platform.

BondMason, which invests in loans across more than 30 P2P platforms on behalf of investors, revealed it has invested 2.48 per cent of its portfolio through Collateral, which has fallen into administration.

Collateral has been unreachable since shutting down its website on Monday and it has emerged that its regulatory permission had lapsed.

BondMason has been addressing investor concerns on the P2P Independent Forum, and said it has been in touch with the Collateral team, administrators and lawyers but could not disclose the conversations.

“In terms of our involvement with Collateral, we were pleased to work with them on their property lending opportunities,” BondMason said.

“We invested a total of 2.48 per cent of invested capital through Collateral, of which 0.78 per cent has repaid and there is 1.69 per cent outstanding.

“In each of the loans, there is security and the underlying borrower continues to repay.

“We have offered to step in to work out any of the loans we are invested in, if needs be, for the benefit of all lenders whether they have come through BondMason or not.”

The message added that the individual loans are separate to any administration proceedings and are held by a separate company, Collateral Security Trustee Ltd.

“The administration of the operating company should not represent a credit event on the underlying loans – as long as there is someone to manage the loan book which is likely to be done by the administrator, and as we have also offered ourselves,” it said.

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