Latvian marketplace lender Mintos and Creamfinance have partnered to list loans originated in Denmark and the Czech Republic; Creamfinance Financial Planning Director, Georgijs Ustinovs, said, "High investor demand for Creamfinance loans was our main motivation for adding a new market to the Mintos platform."; Mintos noted that the annual return to investors should reach 11%. Source
Facebook's data and privacy rules have slowed business development plans for insurtech firm, Admiral; many fintech firms have sought to use social media profiles in crowdfunding with little success for various reasons; insurtech firm, Admiral, will now be forced to end its plans to use Facebook social media posts and likes for consideration in auto insurance underwriting; Facebook says use of the information is a violation of its data privacy rules. Source
Earlier this week, the UK launched its bank referral scheme to help extend credit to small businesses not funded by nine of the UK's largest banks; it seems that UK banks outside of the UK consortium are also increasing their efforts to provide alternative options for business borrowers; this week NatWest announced it has added iwoca to its alternative lending panel, Capital Connections. Source
The Bank of England kept its central bank borrowing rate at 0.25% and decided to continue with its $86 billion asset purchase program; while no changes were made to monetary policy, the BOE changed its guidance; with an increased focus on inflation in the region, the BOE said it would be prepared to raise rates in order to keep inflation at its 2% target rate. Source
Crowdfunding platform, Abundance, has launched the UK's first innovative finance individual savings accounts (IFISAs) for investors in crowd bonds; the investment offering follows an announcement from the UK Treasury that it will extend qualified investments in UK IFISAs to crowd bonds; platform offers bond investments from renewable energy companies; the company is able to offer the IFISAs because of its status as an investment-based crowdfunding platform. Source
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has approved LendingCrowd for full FCA authorization which allows the company to offer investments through IFISAs; the approval follows a £2.75 million Scottish Enterprise investment in the platform's small business loans last week; the FCA's last approval was in October for P2PFA member firm, Lending Works. Source
RateSetter's Provision Fund is a capital reserve that helps ensure investors get paid principal and interest even if loans default; currently the fund is valued at £22 million; with the company projecting future losses via default of £18 million, the "Provision Fund coverage" ratio is roughly 120%; now, the firm has begun publishing a "capital coverage ratio" that combines the reserve funds with the expected interest payments on the loans, then divides by expected losses; with £30 million in interest payments expected, added to the £22 million reserves, the capital coverage ratio is nearly 3x; RateSetter said the newly published ratio is more fair when comparing RateSetter's assurances against other online lenders that don't hold a reserve fund but that still calculate coverage of potential losses. Source
Marketplace lender, Spotcap, is headquartered in Germany and first launched in Spain; it now has opened an office in London and has begun serving the UK lending market; uncertainties with Brexit crossed executives' minds but didn't deter the launch; UK Managing Director, Niels Turfboer, said, "a lot needs to happen in the world [for London] to lose its position, which is basically number one in the world after Silicon Valley [for fintech]"; in fact, he adds, "Historically a period of uncertainty will lead to more restricted activity from the more traditional finance companies like the High Street banks. That has its effect mostly on the SMEs as they're considered to be more risky. I definitely think it's going to be a turbulent and challenging time but alternative finance will have more influence in the coming years, in my opinion."; the company focuses on offering working capital lines of credit for small businesses. Source
The British High Court ruled on Thursday that Parliament must give its approval for Brexit, creating uncertainty on whether or not the UK will leave the European Union; plans for exiting the EU were to begin in March; the government now has appealed the High Court's decision to the Supreme Court which will consider the appeal in December; if the ruling is upheld speculators believe Parliament would continue with the same sentiment that its voters reported in June. Source
P2P property lending has been providing steady returns in the UK, according to a report from rating agency, 4thWay; since 2013, UK P2P property lenders have lent £1.6 billion with returns ranging from 2.25% to 12.7%; lenders in the category have achieved success through thorough underwriting processes with maximum loan to value ratios of 70% to 80% and most loans secured by the property. Source