RIVERNORTH Capital Management today said it has launched a fund dedicated to peer-to-peer lending, in a sign that US investor sentiment is improving towards the sector after the Lending Club scandal. The Chicago-based investment firm’s new fund, called RiverNorth Marketplace Lending Corporation, will be listed on the Nasdaq and will invest in a range of […]
THE US has already seen home-grown peer-to-peer platform Lending Club and China’s Yirendai float on the New York Stock Exchange. Then it emerged last week that Chinese lender Lufax is preparing for an initial public offering in Hong Kong – once again raising the question of when the UK will follow suit. It is the […]
KUFLINK has hired fraud detection firm Contego to bolster its anti-money laundering checks. The peer-to-peer platform, where loans are secured against property, said that implementing effective fraud mitigation and risk management is crucial for them to stay competitive. It chose Contego as its identity verification and risk-scoring platform will support Kuflink’s complex checking requirements, the […]
THE GOVERNMENT’S digital adviser has said that technology will help the UK prosper in the wake of the Brexit vote and highlighted a skills shortage in the sector. Martha Lane Fox CBE, who launched Lastminute.com in 1998 with her former colleague and sold it for £577m in 2005, said at the Institute of Directors’ annual […]
HARGREAVES Lansdown is hiring a marketing manager to promote its new peer-to-peer lending platform ahead of its launch early next year. The fund supermarket said the new employee would have “a strong background in data analysis and customer relationship management (CRM) programmes” and would be based at the firm’s headquarters in Bristol. “To address the […]
Irish peer-to-peer platform Linked Finance has hired London-based corporate finance firm Liberum as an adviser, as it looks to attract funding from international institutional investors. The company is looking to raise €5m (£4.3m) in equity from global investors and up to €150m in liquidity funding, as part of its goal to lend out €350m by the end […]
INVESTMENT managers, finance houses and banks are feeling less optimistic about the future, due to lower interest rates and post-Brexit uncertainty. The latest CBI/PwC Financial Services Survey, released today, found that optimism in the financial services sector fell for the third consecutive quarter in the three months leading up the September, the longest period of negative sentiment […]
Chris Hancock, chief executive of peer-to-peer finance platform Crowd2Fund, hits back at criticism of the IFISA authorisation process… WITH the fallout from Brexit resulting in an interest rate cut to 0.25 per cent, the Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA) is needed more than ever, as people look for their hard-earned money to do more for them. […]
FUNDING Circle saw its losses double to almost £40m last year, as expanding overseas took its toll on the peer-to-peer platform’s balance sheet. The London-headquartered firm has been investing heavily in the business in order to grow its presence in America and Europe. Revenues rose from £13m to £32m over the period, according to The […]
PEER-TO-PEER platform Landbay has partnered with Zoopla so that consumers can invest in buy-to-let mortgages via the property website. Investors can put as little as £100 into buy-to-let mortgages via Zoopla’s new ‘Invest’ channel, which was announced today. Landbay connects professional buy-to-let landlords with investors and provides them with a loan secured against the property. […]
GLI Finance’s chief executive today blamed his predecessor’s spending “splurge” for the investment fund’s £6.9m first-half loss and vowed to push ahead with the investment firm’s overhaul. The company, which invests in a range of alternative finance providers including peer-to-peer bond platform UK Bond Network, has written down £13m of underperforming investments and launched a strategic review […]
ZOPA’S £138m securitisation has been priced, Peer-to-Peer Finance News has learnt. London-listed investment trust P2P Global Investments owns the peer-to-peer platform’s loans that are being securitised and is sponsoring the transaction. News of the deal, which will be the first ever securitisation of unsecured consumer loans in Europe, emerged last week. The practice, already popular in […]
THE GOVERNMENT should guarantee the money consumers invest through peer-to-peer platforms as it will boost local economies, according to a new report. The proposals outlined by the Bauman Institute at the University of Leeds said that the alternative finance sector could provide a cheaper alternative to direct government investment for the taxpayer. “Central government should […]
RATESETTER’S investors have earned more than £50m in interest since the peer-to-peer platform was launched in October 2010, earning an average rate of 4.7 per cent. The company, which is one of the largest platforms in the market, is proud of its provision fund that means no investors have lost money to date – although […]
BUSINESS confidence is low among small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), despite increased lending and expansion plans. According to a new report from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), business confidence levels are at a four-year low. However, this claim was quickly refuted by the National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers (NACFB), which claimed that lending […]