MoneyThing winds down platform
MONEYTHING has announced that it is winding down its platform, blaming lower investor confidence and fierce competition in the lower-risk business loans market.
The peer-to-peer business lender is still technically solvent so has not appointed administrators, but has chosen to wind down its loanbook to ensure the best possible outcome for its investors.
MoneyThing has secured cashflow finance from Rapid Finance, according to Companies House documents filed on Thursday. Peer2Peer Finance News understands this is to cover the costs of legal fees on recoveries.
Sophie Pearce, managing director of MoneyThing, said the collapse of Lendy and FundingSecure had hit investor confidence and described the “huge influx” of institutional capital into the sector as good for borrowers but not lenders.
“As a small, self-select P2P platform entirely funded by retail money, we cannot be certain that we can fund new loans with the current low level of lender confidence,” she said.
“As a result, it has become increasingly difficult for us to compete and we expect those market conditions to continue.”
Pearce said the business will continue to be managed by the existing directors in wind-down.
“Our aim will be to minimise any disruption to our customers and ensure the safe return of funds to lenders,” she said,
“We would like to thank all of our lenders for their support over the past few years. We made a commitment to lenders to provide a service and we would like to reassure our customers that that commitment will continue until the wind-down has been completed.
“We have not been able to make MoneyThing a success. We will however aim to exit the market quietly with minimum disruption to our customers and the industry as a whole.”
The loanbook is worth £92m and the platform plans to wind it down over the next 12 months.