Panel of Peers’ Powers And Responsibilities

The members on the Panel of Peers are responsible to themselves and other lending peers like you for helping to ensure that 4thWay's services are, and remain, highly trustworthy for all lenders.

Prospective panel members – here's what you do:

Report anything troubling your instincts or counter to your own knowledge

Firstly, let 4thWay know if, in your regular usage of the 4thWay® site (however much/little that may be) you see anything that you believe is inaccurate, misleading or omitted, with a particular focus on the risks and factual accuracy. This includes, for example, if you think that a page or set of pages does not explain clearly or prominently enough a specific risk when it appears to be an appropriate time to do so.

In other words, if something seems factually incorrect or implausible, or important facts appear to be too buried or missing.

MOT twice per year

We also ask that you deliberately check in on the site at least twice a year to look for anything that might bother you. One hour will probably prove sufficient, plus a bit more time to craft an email to us about it if something does actually bother you.

Specifically, your tasks are:

Comparison pages

• If platforms are missing from the comparison table, establish what the reason is. Is it a good reason? 4thWay to provide the answers in its FAQ page, but is that clear enough?
• Are the comparison results still sorted correctly? By default, they should sort lending accounts first by 4thWay® PLUS Rating, where there is one available. That is our calculated score based on a more strict version of the Basel stress tests used by global banks, which balances risk of bad debts and the reward (lending rates). In a tiebreak it's then sorted by 4thWay® Risk Score (which, like the ratings, is also based on the same risk of bad debts in a severe recession and property crash – stressed credit risk – but without the reward side). If another tiebreak is needed, it's then sorted by highest rate. Finally, it's sorted alphabetically, but it's never come to that yet.
• Is the information in the comparison tables, as far as you can see, being kept accurate and up-to-date? Wherever possible: some platforms don't provide us with regular updates and we try to note that in the appropriate places. Bear in mind that as lenders don't contribute to the upkeep of our public website and free published research (except for donations) we don't have anything remotely close to unlimited resources, so we can't have all platforms up-to-date 24-hours-a-day. While some figures are updated both automatically and even routinely on a manual basis, we rotate through our full (re)assessments of platforms as often as possible.
• Do any risk warnings or explanations of the 4thWay® PLUS Ratings on the comparison page (or that pop up on the page) appear to be worded fairly and clearly?

Published research, reviews, articles and guides

• Are our reports truthful and the whole truth, as far as you can tell?
• Is 4thWay® reporting on the negative aspects of P2P proportionately, i.e. often enough and prominently enough based on their scale/importance? For example, in an article mentioning a platform's facility to sell loans and get money back early, it should always make clear that lenders could experience lengthy delays, without all the legal jargon that platforms sometimes use. Can you find specific examples of where you feel this or other negatives of P2P lending are not made clear?
• Your job isn't to censor an opinion expressed by a 4thWay® speciaist or contributor. But you need to show us any relevant pages if you believe our opinions are being biased or if you feel that an opinion is coming across that way.
• Do any risk warnings or explanations of our 4thWay® PLUS Ratings and 4thWay® Risk Scores appear to be worded fairly and clearly?

Commercial

Panel members to understand that 4thWay^® has to be able to sell something to maintain our public website for individual lenders, but that doesn't mean we can't be open and honest about it, and it still can't impact our independent research, trustworthiness or reputation:

• Is it clear what our commercial products are that sustain the public website, on the appropriate pages? (At the moment, this is fees for ratings and when lenders open accounts by clicking through us, plus labelled advertising. More on all that in a few bullet points.)
• Is it clear how 4thWay® makes money directly from our website users? (Currently, it's donations only.)
• Do we tell users often enough, and in the right places, how we make money through the public website?
• Are marketing messages, articles, blogs or sponsored messages from P2P lending companies (if any) clearly labelled as such? (We provide independent content. We once dabbled with allowing a platform to write a sponsored article, but we found too much resistance from the sponsor when we wanted them to make it accurate, balanced and better explain all the risks.)
• Is it clear when we have affiliate links? (This means we earn money if people open accounts and invest after clicking through links on our website.)
• Are adverts (if any) clearly labelled as such? (Adverts are distinct from affiliate links, in that they are banners that we get money for just for displaying them, or we get money when someone clicks through them.)
• If we have adverts, do you believe that the advertiser probably has a decent product at a fair price that genuinely should appeal to many 4thWay users? Have our Ethical Sponsored Content Guidelines & Advertising Guidelines been followed?

Excluded from your responsibilities

Excluded from your responsibilities are an assessment of 4thWay^® specialists' and other contributors' opinions, which are their own, or your view of the 4thWay^® PLUS Ratings and 4thWay^® Risk Scores, which are calculated ratings based on the international Basel stress tests that banks use. That said, if you think something has clearly gone wrong with the ratings or scores – as in you think there must be some mistake – that is included in your remit to still question us about that.

How to point out issues and force 4thWay® to make changes

1. For all the above tasks that are within your remit, individual panel members email 4thWay^® to point out any that you observe that bother you.
2. If we agree with you, we'll make changes to correct the situation as quickly as possible.
3. If we respond that we don't think it's an issue, we'll tell you why.
4. If we have told you we think it's not an issue, and you don't like the reason we give you, the email thread is shared with the rest of the Panel. The Panel then between it decides if it needs to be changed or not.
5. If the Panel unanimously decides it needs to change, you may insist 4thWay^® changes it – and at this point 4thWay^® must do as you ask.
6. If, after 4thWay^® makes any change, the Panel member (or Panel if it reached step five) is not satisfied with those changes, the Panel member (or Panel) can discuss with 4thWay^® a different way to make the change.

The Panel does need to accept that 4thWay^® has limited financial and time resources when it comes to both speed of making changes and when it comes to the types of solutions that we can agree on – we think there will probably always be an effective, low-budget solution that should work for all.

There's a lot we do aside from the Panel for trustworthiness

Just so you know, aside from the Panel of Peers, there's a lot more we do to ensure we maintain impeccable standards and so that the Panel is not kept busy. To learn about some of that, read How We Earn Money Fairly With Your Help.