P2P lending companies use many different ways to lower the risks of lending your money. I’m going to compare two of those ways today: secured lending and bad-debt provision funds. At 4thWay, we take great pains to avoid technical language or at least to explain it clearly…
Recently, Zopa, the P2P lending website that started it all, changed the mix of loans that lenders will have their money allocated to, so that they can get higher rates. At the same time, it removed its rate promise, which means that you could potentially get less…
ArchOver*, the only secured and insured business peer-to-peer lending company, is lowering its lending limit from £5,000 to £1,000 from next week. ArchOver only lends to one grade of borrower, which it calls, variably, “grade A” and “grade A+”, although perhaps its most useful description of…
I want to show you how different savings and investments did in the year just gone by. I’ve not cherry-picked this information to make peer-to-peer lending look good. I’ve looked for precisely the information that I want to know when doing a serious comparison of savings accounts…
It’s like when your say that a piece of art looks beautiful while the man at your side shakes his head in disgust. You’re both entitled to your opinions. Similarly, there are no regulations that define what an A+ loan is, or an A, or any other loan…
Sorry that we missed this somehow, especially since I’m a Lending Works member: its bad-debt provision fund has got better from 1 January. The worst bit is that I was sort of told this by someone working there in December. Anyway… Here’s the situation: Lending…
Unbolted has just launched. It is the newest peer-to-peer lending company to focus on pawnbroking. The company is regulated by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority and backed by early investors in Ocado. It is currently not accepting new lenders. It is not unusual for brand new P2P lending…
A common theme in all today’s peer-to-peer lending news articles and blogs on 4thWay has been the see-saw effect: more borrowers make it easier for lenders to lend at better rates while borrowers have to pay more. This encourages more lenders to come, which makes…
P2P lending provision funds set aside to reimburse lenders like you and me when loans go bad are of widely different sizes and some pay out sooner than others. How big is your provision fund? Sources: the P2P lending companies and 4thWay® As you can…
I wanted to know just what kind of disaster lenders like you and me could survive when we lend our money through property peer-to-peer lending company Wellesley & Co.* so I put it to a severe test with big property price falls and lots of borrowers failing…
There’s one risk that is completely ignored by many financial institutions. Dangerously for savers and investors, this blinkered vision filters through to financial and news websites, and even to professionals who should know better. This risk is such a huge risk for people saving in…
The P2P lending companies pitching themselves as lowest risk and easy-to-use all have the best records – with no lenders losing any money. These companies all have bad-debt provision funds: that’s a pot of money in reserve to pay you back in case a borrower…
Ratesetter, the low-risk consumer loans p2p lending company, has announced that it is taking over GraduRates‘ loans. GraduRates is a P2P lending company targeting postgraduate borrowers. Full financial regulation is starting next year and so Gradurates has decided to wind down its loan book rather than meet…
Around 2004 or 2005, I can’t remember which, dentists suddenly started doing far more fillings and far less root canals. A few years later, German hospitals suddenly started doing lots more caesarean sections than previously. A few years after that, financial advisors in the UK suddenly…
This is the Candid Opinion blog and now it’s time to be candid about the 4thWay® Risk Ratings. We’re proud of our scoring system and we’ll only get more proud as it proves itself and as we improve on it. The feedback we’re getting from the…
Alongside our article on some very interesting changes coming this week at Bondora, the European P2P lending company, and my blog showing my opinions, here’s our Q&A with the chief executive officer and founder, Pärtel Tomberg. If you struggle with any technical or other difficult…
I wrote this morning* about the latest news from European personal loans P2P lending company Bondora, which UK lenders can use to lend to borrowers in other countries. In a moment I’ll share my thoughts on Bondora’s changes and there’ll be a dark interlude into doctors killing patients,…
Bondora, the European personal loans P2P lending company, has devised a system to make it easier for lenders in the UK or elsewhere to compare the risks of lending across Europe, including in countries with far higher interest rates. To do this it will soon being…
It’s all very well us telling you to spread your risk – diversify – across dozens or hundreds of loans, but what if a P2P lending company you’re interested in doesn’t have enough loans? Other than walking away, I think you have five choices: 1….
Funding Circle is currently returning cashback to lenders, taken out of the borrowers’ fees, in the following loan auctions: A+, residential property development loan for 16 months in Cheshire Offering 1.5% cashback. The auction will be over by 10am on Wednesday 10 December at the latest. This…
