CONSUMER credit declined for the first time since 2013 as households scaled back borrowing in January. Figures from banking trade body UK Finance shows the value of consumer credit – incorporating loans, credit cards and overdrafts – fell 0.2 per cent last month. The amount borrowed on personal loans fell 15.7 per cent annually to […]
OPEN Banking could add more than £1bn annually to the UK economy and support up to 17,000 jobs, new research claims. The new data-sharing initiative, which mirrors the EU’s Payment Services Directive II, mandates high street banks to share anonymised customer data with third parties, including peer-to-peer lenders. The Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) […]
LANDBAY has broadened its product proposition into lending for landlords managing houses in multiple occupation (HMO.) The peer-to-peer buy-to-let lender will now offer products focusing on landlords with HMOs, a specialist area that banks often avoid. The lender will offer different rates for small HMOs – classed as six bedrooms or less – and large […]
THE GLOBAL marketplace lending sector saw nearly $9bn (£6.45bn) invested across 233 deals last year, marking a new funding record for the industry. Consultancy firm Fintech Global, who compiled the data, found that equity investment in the sector rebounded to $8.9bn last year after a slowdown in 2016. The total was boosted by the top […]
EASYMONEY, part of Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou’s ‘easy’ family of brands, has launched in the UK with an Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA) offering a target rate of 4.05 per cent a year. Customers’ money will be diversified across multiple property-backed peer-to-peer loans. EasyMoney said the product is aimed at investors who have had enough of the […]
PEER-TO-PEER investor BondMason is offering a money back guarantee to clients who are unhappy with its services in the first six months. BondMason, which invests in selected P2P loans across approved platforms on an investor’s behalf, has launched a ‘satisfaction guarantee’ for anyone unhappy with its service. Stephen Findlay, chief executive of BondMason, says the […]
BNP Paribas has launched an investment fund to support innovative fintech start-ups. The fund will take direct minority stakes in start-ups that are “reinventing financial services and insurance”, the banking group said. It will also make indirect investments through venture capital funds whose priorities in technologies, geographies and topics match those of BNP Paribas’ businesses. Read […]
LendIt Fintech USA 2018 Date: 9-11 April 2018 Venue: San Francisco, CA LendIt Fintech USA 2018 returns to San Francisco as we host the world’s leading event in financial services innovation at Moscone West. The year’s event brings together 5,000 decision makers from major fintech, blockchain, digital banking and lending companies for three action-packed days […]
EQUI, the cryptocurrency-backed peer-to-peer investment platform co-founded by lingerie tycoon Baroness Michelle Mone (pictured), has bolstered its advisory board with the appointment of Duncan MacInnes. MacInnes, who was an early-stage backer of innovative tech giants Facebook and Deliveroo, founded his first business at the age of 14, exiting in his early twenties. He went on […]
SHAREIN, a software provider for online investment businesses, expects to double or even triple its crowdfunding platform client base this year. The Edinburgh-based company, which was formed in 2011, provides white-labelled technology platforms and compliance solutions for online investment firms such as peer-to-peer lenders. It recently announced it had won Triodos as its latest client, […]
ASSETZ Capital is adding its Manual Lending Account (MLA) to its Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA) wrapper early next week. The peer-to-peer business lender’s customers can already hold its auto-investment products within the IFISA. “When we came to plan for our ISA, we knew manual lending had to form part of it,” Assetz Capital said in […]
INVESTORS wishing to invest tax-efficiently in peer-to-peer business loans have a wide variety of Innovative Finance ISAs (IFISAs) to choose from. On Wednesday, we looked at four IFISAs that enable people to lend to the UK’s small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – a cohort that often finds obtaining finance a real challenge. In this article, […]
DEFAULT forecasts across some of the main consumer peer-to-peer lending platforms have begun ticking up. At the same time lenders have faced pressure to keep borrower rates lower to compete with cheaper loan pricing among banks and building societies. So should investors be concerned about rising default expectations? Zopa figures show its expected default rate […]
PEOPLE living in London are requesting some of the biggest high-cost short-term loans in the UK, analysis reveals. Londoners made a total of 5,709 high-cost short-term loan requests in January at an average value of £346. The number of loan applications by Londoners is down 12.4 per cent from a year ago, but the size […]
FAMILY incomes are expected to start slowly rising again next year, but those “just about managing” (JAMs) could face three years of stagnating living standards, research suggests. The Resolution Foundation’s annual living standards outlook found that the post-EU referendum period of high inflation means typical household incomes are projected to have fallen marginally this financial […]