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| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Financial services |
| Founded | 2013 |
| Founder | Stephen Findlay |
| Headquarters | , |
| Products | Financial services Direct lending |
Number of employees | 18 |
| Website | www |
BondMason is a direct lending (including peer-to-peer lending) investment manager based in Harpenden, England. [1]
BondMason was founded in 2013 [2] by Stephen Findlay, an accountant with a background in private equity who previously worked at Fidelity Equity Partners. [3]
BondMason's peer-to-peer lending platform operated from October 2015 [4] until May 2019, at which point it ceased it's core property-lending investment service. [5] The company claims that this was not due to financial troubles, but rather concerns about the credit outlook. Findlay had also explained in an interview that the platform had struggled to obtain FCA regulation. [6] According to the company web page, BondMason's clients received over 100% of their invested capital back. [7]
In 2016, BondMason completed an equity funding round led by Par Equity, a venture capital firm based in Edinburgh, Scotland. [8] In March 2018, the company secured £1.85 million in another funding round led by Seneca Partners and Par Equity. [9]
BondMason was one of the first companies accepted onto the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Innovation Hub programme. [10]
BondMason's peer-to-peer lending platform enabled clients to access returns from direct lending, mostly loans secured against UK property. It offered bonds and investment funds.
The company also produced proprietary research into direct lending market trends, [11] [12] including analysis that identified the size and growth of the UK peer-to-peer lending market from £2.3bn in 2015 [13] to £3.2bn in 2016. [14]
A credit-linked note (CLN) is a form of funded credit derivative. It is structured as a security with an embedded credit default swap allowing the issuer to transfer a specific credit risk to credit investors. The issuer is not obligated to repay the debt if a specified event occurs. This eliminates a third-party insurance provider.
Peer-to-peer lending, also abbreviated as P2P lending, is the practice of lending money to individuals or businesses through online services that match lenders with borrowers. Peer-to-peer lending companies often offer their services online, and attempt to operate with lower overhead and provide their services more cheaply than traditional financial institutions. As a result, lenders can earn higher returns compared to savings and investment products offered by banks, while borrowers can borrow money at lower interest rates, even after the P2P lending company has taken a fee for providing the match-making platform and credit checking the borrower. There is the risk of the borrower defaulting on the loans taken out from peer-lending websites.
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Unbolted is a UK based online personal asset-based peer-to-peer lending platform, where individuals can borrow from other individuals by using high value personal assets such as luxury watches, cars, fine arts, antiques, jewellery and commodities such as gold. The company started trading in November 2014 and has its offices in London.
The House Crowd was a British peer to peer lending and crowdfunding platform that allowed people to invest in bridging loans and property development loans from £1,000. In 2018, the business achieved authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority and launched their Innovative Finance ISA. As of January 2019, The House Crowd had funded 368 properties, raised over £93 million and paid investors returns in excess of £38 million. The House Crowd was placed into administration on 24 February 2021 and subsequently wound-up.
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