Assetz Capital extends lender fee

Assetz Capital chief Stuart Law has said the platform has extended its 0.9 per cent annual investor fee this month and is waiting until lending has risen to more normal levels again to remove it.

The peer-to-peer property and business lender introduced the fee at the start of May, after experiencing a substantial drop in its income as a result of Covid-19. In June it announced that it was extending the fee for at least three months and has now extended it again.

Law (pictured) told Peer2Peer Finance News that Assetz is reviewing the fee every month.

“There’s a plan to reduce it,” Law said.  “We wish to remove it where possible and as soon as we can.

“We are reviewing it each month but this month’s decision continues to be that we have to leave it again and wait until lending under the coronavirus business interruption loan scheme (CBILS) and other lending earnings have risen to more normal levels again.”

The fee, which is equivalent to 0.07 per cent per month, is calculated throughout the month based on investors’ funds under management and is taken as a reduction of the actual interest received.

Assetz was accredited to deliver CBILS in May, which provides government-backed loans to small businesses struggling during the pandemic, through approved lenders.