Type Limited Products Peer-to-peer lending Parent Assetz Plc Headquarters London | Industry Finance Services Financial Services Founded London | |
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Divisions Assetz SME Capital Ltd
Assetz Capital Ltd | ||
Assetz Capital is a Peer to Peer or Marketplace lender which allows private and institutional investors to lend money directly to small businesses (SMEs) and property developers in the UK.
Contents
History
Assetz Capital, a UK based peer-to-peer finance platform for funding small to mid-sized businesses and property developers, was the first secured P2P lender in the UK and possibly the world. The company, founded by Stuart Law, was launched in March 2013. T
Assetz Capital was the fastest growing secured peer-to-peer company in the UK in 2013, and within the first year of business lent over £19 million. AltFi.com recorded a lending growth rate for Assetz Capital of 300% pa in 2014.
In April 2013 Assetz Capital raised £1.5m for the largest peer to peer loan in the UK to date, by a factor of three. the previous largest peer to peer loan was £500k. The loan was a first charge secured property development loan for a student accommodation project in Nottingham, Trent Pads with a 50% loan to value and a one-year term. In addition this loan had the largest single peer to peer bid in the UK to date at £350k.
In May 2013, Assetz Capital became the first peer-to-peer lending company to launch a peer-to-peer backed buy to let mortgages
In August 2013, The Daily Telegraph described Assetz Capital as "sophisticated", but pointed out it is one of a number of small peer-to-peer lending start-ups whose investors face greater risks than at the established "big three" firms Zopa, RateSetter and Funding Circle.
In September 2013, Yahoo! Finance credited Assetz Capital as the fastest growing peer-to-peer lending companies in the UK.
In November 2014, Asset Capital passed £50m lent using the service.
In December 2014, Assetz Capital formed a joint Venture with Interface Financial Group to supply single invoice discounting and spot factoring solutions to UK businesses.
In January 2015, Assetz Capital announced it had received a £150m funding line from Victory Park Capital to fund SME loans. This is part of a £1bn line of funding from institutions and private investors being assembled by the company by the end of 2015.
In January 2015, Assetz Capital a contract with Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) to fund business loans for the bank's customers that it could not fund itself.
Website and Systems
The website and its loan auction system allow lenders to browse and bid upon loan applications that have been approved by Assetz Capital. A lender can lend small (from £20) or large amounts (no limit) to a number of businesses, whilst a business gets a loan made up of several smaller loan components from individual lenders. This is similar to other leading peer-to-peer lending companies such as Zopa. Assetz Capital also operates a secondary market via its website and this has traded second-hand parts of loans representing 50% by value of all loans made to date (June 2014).
Risk and regulation
Like all other peer-to-peer lending companies, if a borrower fails to repay a loan a lender risks losing all or part of their investment. Assetz Capital take asset security from the borrower to mitigate against loses to the lenders. It is important to differentiate between loan defaults and losses, the difference being the recovered capital via the security taken against the loan when it was first extended. Assetz Capital uses a professional recoveries team to recover capital through security taken on a loan and is one of the few peer to peer lenders to take tangible security.
In December 2012, HM Treasury announced the start of a consultation period to regulate the peer-to-peer industry and in April 2013 Assetz Capital and the other leading peer to peer lenders obtained interim permissions from the FCA.
Returns
Advertised returns are 3.75% to 18% gross but will vary from lender to lender. These returns are subject to taxation and losses arising from defaults.