Assetz hopes to resume lending in access accounts by end of 2020
Assetz Capital’s chief executive Stuart Law hopes to resume lending in the access accounts and remove the lender fee by the end of the year.
The 0.9 per cent annual lender fee and the pause on lending in the access accounts have been in place for several months.
In March, the peer-to-peer lending platform temporarily paused payments to investors from its automated lending accounts after being hit by increased withdrawal requests at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Then at the start of May, Assetz Capital introduced the temporary fee, after experiencing a substantial drop in its income as a result of the pandemic. This has been extended a few times and remains in place.
Law (pictured) said by the end of the year, he hopes that the platform would have introduced something to improve the liquidity in the access accounts and as a result when lending resumes in these automated lending accounts, it will be able to remove the lender fee.
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“We’re working on a final plan,” said Law.
“The next stage is getting the access accounts back up and running as intended. Many investors want to carry on lending and want a healthy return.
“There is no change with the lender fee, but it’s all one plan. We’re aiming to remove the fee by the end of the year.
“Hopefully, we can get the access accounts working by the end of 2020 and when we can lend again on the access accounts and they have improved liquidity, we can remove the fee.
“If the access accounts are not lending then we have all the running costs of the platform with no income from lending, which is partly why we introduced the fee.”
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Last month, in a Q&A with investors, Assetz Capital’s management team revealed it is working on something to improve the liquidity in the access accounts and expects liquidity will return in the future once investor appetite to deposit funds into the accounts returns.
Meanwhile, the lender fee has been extended several times since it was introduced in May.
In June it was extended for three more months, then again in September and at the beginning of October.
