Funding Circle resale time rises to 124 days
LOAN part sales times at Funding Circle have risen from 100 days in September, to 124 days in October, with the peer-to-peer lender warning that wait times are likely to be longer for anyone who is just joining the queue now.
In a note to investors on the FAQ section of its website, one of the platform’s customer service representatives confirmed that between 2 October 2019 and 8 October 2019 it took an average of 124 days to sell loan parts on the platform.
The representative added that “if you are joining the queue now it is likely your sale time will be longer.”
Last month, Funding Circle hit the headlines when it was revealed that the queue for investors to sell their loan parts to other investors had increased to up to 100 days. The platform added that it had begun to manage the proportion of old loans that can be allocated to retail investors, so that all new investors have a mix of both new and old loans in their portfolio.
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“Selling loans is not instant and depends on demand from other investors looking to buy at that time,” said Funding Circle’s customer service representative. “Due to this, we cannot give any time frames for how long it might take for your loan parts to sell.
“The time taken to sell loan parts can fluctuate and you may find that loan parts take longer or shorter to sell than you have experienced previously. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee the sale of loan parts as this is subject to demand.
“If you are selling loan parts, we suggest that you keep them listed for sale as stopping the selling process and restarting again will slow down the process.”
A Funding Circle spokesperson said: “Funding Circle is the largest and best capitalised lending platform in the UK with £300m raised at IPO and UK revenues of £93m in 2018.
“Investors have earned average returns of four to seven per cent since 2012 and a total of £290m of net interest (after fees and bad debt).
“On average investors get back three to five per cent of their funds each month from repayments, and if they want to access funds earlier there is a secondary market but selling depends on new investors being available to purchase loan parts.
“We understand it is frustrating for customers so whilst it is a feature of the platform model, we are conducting a review of the secondary market.”
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