Peer-to-Peer real estate lender Relendex has confirmed full authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Law firm Howard Kennedy has advised Relendex on the process. The Howard Kennedy team was led by Daniel Tunkel, Partner and Head of Regulation, supported by Financial Regulation Associate David Gilinsky. Daniel Galinksy said: “Peer-to-peer lenders have generally struggled to secure full…
Read moreLendInvest and Pepper UK, have agreed to form what is believed to be the industry’s first partnership between a UK online property finance marketplace and an outsourced loan servicing business. Under the terms of the partnership, Pepper UK will take responsibility for servicing all new loans originated by the LendInvest team. The LendInvest team will…
Read moreA collaborative working agreement between the National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers (NACFB), Towergate Insurance and Funding Circle, means that NACFB members can now arrange an unrestricted number of commercial loans with peer-to-peer lenders without jeopardising their insurance cover. Under the terms of the trade body’s membership, NACFB brokers must have professional indemnity insurance which…
Read moreJohn Davies, The Just Loans Group PLC and Chairman of the Association of Alternative Business Finance provides background to the launch of the Association of Alternative Business Finance. Why was the AABF set up? Before last year’s AltFi.com annual European Summit a group of alternative lenders and industry commentators had a working dinner to test the enthusiasm for…
Read moreNatWest is set to launch a new digital platform to allow small and medium sized businesses to quickly obtain unsecured loans of up to £150,000. Esme Loans gives customers a fast decision on their lending application which, if successful, will result in rapid funding, potentially within an hour. Customers will also benefit from no early…
Read moreRateSetter has collected back in £1billon in capital repayments from borrowers since the platform wrote its first loan in 2010. n total, RateSetter investors have lent almost £1.75 billion to individuals and businesses across the UK, including £668 million in 2016 alone. Alongside the £1 billion capital that has been repaid, RateSetter investors have earned £63m…
Read moreSmall and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are missing out on an opportunity to fund their business more effectively because they lack information about the benefits of asset based lending, a new study from Close Brothers reveals. Its research suggests many SMEs are sticking with inflexible and often unobtainable forms of credit because they aren’t aware of…
Read moreThe Association of Alternative Business Finance (AABF) has launched with the major ambition of championing and promoting the best standards of industry practice. The seven founding members, Capify UK, Catalyst Finance, Credit4, Fleximize, Liberis, The Just Loans Group and YesGrowth have clearly defined four operating principles that members will be required to adhere to: Transparency…
Read moreEquifax has been appointed by new P2P lending platform Flender to support the underwriting of loans for UK SMEs. Equifax will supply real-time consumer and commercial data so that the underwriting process can be automated and optimised. The data insight, provided via the Equifax Business Insights solution, will give a holistic view of SME loan…
Read moreBank of England Governor, Mark Carney, has warned that a new breed of internet-only lenders are beginning to pose risks to the financial system and without tighter regulation they could trigger the next financial crash. High street banks were being displaced by online lenders that were untested in a recession, when bankruptcies might make their…
Read moreRateSetter has appointed Michael Hoare as Head of Risk Analytics and Retail Credit. Hoare joins from PayPal UK, where he was Chief Credit Risk Officer, overseeing underwriting, customer management and collections strategies for unsecured consumer and small business lending. Before PayPal UK, Michael worked at Capital One, where he held a number of positions including Credit…
Read moreA New report from KPMG and peer to peer lender (P2P) TWINO shows UK leads the way in alternative finance but also suggests that continental European lenders catching up. The report shows that the UK still leads the way in alternative finance, with four times higher volumes in aggregate than the rest of Continental Europe.…
Read moreThe amount of alternative finance available under ‘asset based lending’ to UK businesses reached a record high of £4.3 billion, up 22% in the last year*, says the Asset Based Finance Association (ABFA). The ABFA explains that asset based lending allows businesses to borrow against a range of assets they already own, including inventory, property,…
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