Almost a third of venture capital investment in the UK was done by the European Investment Fund (EIF) and since the Brexit decision was made this funding source has been turned off; while the British government has attempted to fill the void they have fallen short; "The pullback of the EIF puts the UK at a structural disadvantage compared to other European countries," Fred Destin, a London-based venture capitalist tells Politico; the EIF accounted for $2.7 billion worth of investment into 144 companies from 2011 to 2015 in the UK; the EIF has said they are just doing more diligence on the companies from the UK but the reality is that they have completely pulled back; the British Business Bank has announced plans to offer over $450 million in investments but venture capitalists have said they are unsure if the government can afford to do this in the long term. Source
Chancellor Hammond and the newly established fintech delivery panel will meet in February to discuss the fintech industry; the group's purpose is to drive fintech specific policy recommendations for the UK; 24 industry experts will attend the February meeting including representatives from Funding Circle, Seedrs and MarketInvoice; on April 12 the UK government will also hold the International FinTech Conference in London to connect domestic and international investors with the UK's fintech market. Source
Marketplace crowdfunding platform Lenderwize is reporting success as the first online lending and project financing platform for telecommunications businesses; the firm offers invoice financing, project financing and equity financing with rates of return averaging 6% to 14% annually; they recently surveyed telcos in the industry finding among other statistics a cash flow market opportunity of $22 billion; the platform now has $7.3 million in borrower requests and $10 million committed from institutional investors and six equity investors; it is also expecting new capital from business development presentations at TechFluence's Fintech Meets Telecom in Frankfurt and the Fintech Circle and AngelDen's Pitch in London. Source
One of the more controversial items of the past year around the world has been the Brexit vote in the UK, and at LendIt USA 2017 we hosted a panel of leading platforms to discuss what the vote has meant for their companies thus far; consensus opinion throughout the panel was that the campaign leading up to Brexit had a worse effect than the actually vote; most investors these platforms work with wanted Brexit, so the vote of leaving the EU was not a surprise to many platforms; origination volumes have rebounded since the vote and both small business and consumer markets are currently strong in the UK; during the campaign for Brexit a lot of uncertainty was in the market but that uncertainty and bad news was short lived; markets rebounded, the bad news cycles slowed and UK MPL platforms continue to show strength in the post Brexit world. Source
RateSetter is ending its wholesale loan program after discussions with the Financial Conduct Authority; the Financial Conduct Authority has requested P2P lenders not undertake wholesale lending which provides loan capital to other businesses and financial institutions specifically for the purpose of lending; in 2016, RateSetter reported 114,347,646 British pounds ($142,591,515) in wholesale lending. Source
Online mortgage broker Trussle is currently in the early stages of talks with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to potentially overhaul the mortgage application process; the plan that Trussle is pitching to the FCA is to help standardize documents needed in a format that they are needed in; Mr. Mahli told FTAdviser: "There's an unnecessary inefficiency in the way mortgage applications are packaged and submitted, which varies wildly from lender to lender. Uncertainty is the last thing a buyer wants when making what's often the biggest financial decision of their life."; currently the FCA will not comment on talks that are in such a nascent stage. Source
ThinCats has received endorsements from the National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers (NACFB) and Defaqto for its business operations in the P2P lending industry in the UK; the NACFB has recognized ThinCats for its best practices within commercial finance brokerage activities and ThinCats has joined the NACFB as a patron; ThinCats has also been recognized by Defaqto with a 5-star rating for product quality and comprehensiveness. Source
The UK government has told P2P lenders that wholesale lending does not count under the current regulations and the practice is too risky for retail investors; wholesale lending is when you lend money to a business who then lends that money out; the FCA said, "this would mimic banking – but without the same protection for individuals or regulations for the firms involved"; P2P lender RateSetter started to wind down their wholesale loan book after getting more clarity from the FCA in December; the FCA still hasn't provided full clarity on the subject, but they are at least beginning to give more insight so lenders know where the boundaries are. Source
Huddle Capital provides P2P loans for businesses; Terry Fisher talks about the platform's differentiators and advantages; also discusses its ownership by Access Commercial Finance, its relationship with Rebuildingsociety, its technology and what investors can expect. Source
UK online lender Funding Circle has announced it will be slowing its property lending with plans to fully end the product by mid 2018; the firm is primarily focused on SME lending and says the refocused strategy will help it to increase SME lending and shift its resources for international expansion; property loans have previously only been available to UK borrowers and the product has accounted for approximately 5% of the company's revenue. Source