Ranger Direct Lending Fund raised close to $20 million of the $50 million target it set out to raise through a placing of C shares; in 2015 the fund was looking to raise $169 million but pulled the offering and then raised $17 million; though the fundraise fell short, Numis Securities anticipated the Fund would have issues as the shares are trading at 5% discount. Source
RateSetter has created a new committee to monitor and report on expected losses providing increased transparency for the firm; the committee will include RateSetter's CEO, CFO and various other directors of consumer and commercial credit risk; the committee will provide quarterly reporting on expected losses for the board of directors and also plans to publicly disclose data on its website; additionally the firm plans to enhance its performance reporting with more details on materialized and expected losses; overall, new initiatives around risk monitoring are an effort to more accurately analyze and manage risk following higher than expected losses from loans in 2014 and 2015. Source
The Peer-to-Peer Finance Association (P2PFA) is a trade body representing three quarters of the P2P lending market in the UK; RateSetter has breached rules set by the P2PFA; according to RateSetter, "No customer has experienced any loss from our actions but we recognize that our actions breached the principles of the Association."; recently the company has been in the news with regards to their wholesale lending business that it has been winding down. Source
One of the top three P2P platforms in the UK loses their new chief risk officer only six months after he was initially hired; Cyrille Salle de Chou, who initially came from Lloyd's Banking Group, is now headed to HSBC to be the chief risk officer of their European retail business; Salle de Chou told the Financial Times: "[It is] a great opportunity I could not refuse. Not a sign of concerns re RateSetter. I thoroughly enjoyed my time at RateSetter." Source
RateSetter has sold non-performing debt to debt purchaser 1st Credit; source says the sale was for 2.1 million British pounds ($2.6 million) of non-performing loans originated between 2010 and 2015; the sale goes beyond the company's standard plans for default collection and coverage which include support from one of the industry's most well-known provision funds; the RateSetter Provision Fund promises to cover defaults for borrowers and is valued at approximately 22 million British pounds ($27.2 million); with expected losses of approximately 19 million British pounds ($23.5 million) it currently has a coverage ratio of 118%. Source
The Ranger Direct Lending closed-end fund is seeking to raise £40 million through the sale of new shares; fund is currently at £236 million; company will offer new C shares in December; the fund's last two share offerings have been for Z shares with trading symbol ZDP; the Ranger Direct Lending Fund has been steadily leading returns for UK marketplace lending funds in 2016. Source
RateSetter has hired Michael Hoare from PayPal as its new head of risk analytics and retail credit; Hoare was previously the chief credit risk officer at PayPal UK and also has experience at Capital One; Hoare and the risk management team will report to RateSetter's risk committee chairman as the company continues to build its risk team following the departure of Chief Risk Officer Cyrille Sallé de Chou who left RateSetter after six months for a chief risk officer role within HSBC's European retail business. Source
Firm says the platform is the first to introduce hire purchase loans for businesses; the firm has developed the product in collaboration with former wholesale lending partner Corporate Asset Solutions who will serve as a distribution channel; RateSetter will take full security over the specified asset and the platform says its hire purchase agreements will range up to GBP750,000 ($993,000). Source
Plum uses artificial intelligence to suggest and automate savings for its customers; the RateSetter Plum partnership will add a new savings option for Plum customers; through the platform customers can now choose to automate investment to a RateSetter account with an average return of approximately 4.7%. Source
RateSetter has announced new terms for its lenders which will go into effect on March 1; the new terms provide increased transparency for lending activities; they also give greater flexibility to the Provision Fund through a new stabilization period; changes made to the lender terms since October 2015 can be found here. Source
