 | |
| Type | Ltd. |
|---|---|
| Founded | United Kingdom (2014) |
| Founder | Stuart Lunn |
| Headquarters | , |
Area served | UK |
| Products | P2P lending |
| Website | https://www.lendingcrowd.com/ |
LendingCrowd is an online peer-to-peer lending company, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. As the first Scottish based crowdlending firm, LendingCrowd has created a platform that enables investors to support small and medium-sized businesses by lending personal capital through small loans whilst earning a monthly interest payment. [1]
Launched in 2014, LendingCrowd is the trading name of Edinburgh Alternative Finance Ltd. and was founded by CEO Stuart Lunn. [2] Since September 2014, the LendingCrowd platform has delivered more than £45 million in loans for over 500 SMEs across Britain [3] In October 2018, LendingCrowd announced the appointment of former Standard Life CEO Sir Sandy Crombie as its chairman. [4]
In February 2017 LendingCrowd became one of the first peer-to-peer business lending platforms to provide the Innovative Finance ISA. [5] Only fully FCA authorised platforms are eligible to offer this product giving investors the opportunity to invest in peer-to-peer lending without having to pay tax on the interest earned. [6] [7]
LendingCrowd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). In November 2016 LendingCrowd became one of the first peer-to-peer lenders to move from interim permissions to fully authorised. [8]
An individual savings account is a class of retail investment arrangement available to residents of the United Kingdom. First introduced in 1999, the accounts have favourable tax status. Payments into the account are made from after-tax income, then the account is exempt from income tax and capital gains tax on the investment returns, and no tax is payable on money withdrawn from the scheme. Cash and a broad range of investments can be held within the arrangement, and there is no restriction on when or how much money can be withdrawn. Since 2017, there have been four types of account: cash ISA, stocks & shares ISA, innovative finance ISA (IFISA) and lifetime ISA. Each taxpayer has an annual investment limit which can be split among the four types as desired. Additionally, children under 18 may hold a junior ISA, with a different annual limit.
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.
LendingClub is a peer-to-peer lending company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was the first peer-to-peer lender to register its offerings as securities with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and to offer loan trading on a secondary market. At its height, LendingClub was the world's largest peer-to-peer lending platform. The company claims that $15.98 billion in loans had been originated through its platform up to December 31, 2015.
Zopa is a British financial services company which offers deposit accounts and credit cards. It began as the world's first peer-to-peer lending company in 2005 and gained a full banking licence in 2020. The peer-to-peer side of its business closed in December 2021.
Funding Circle is a commercial lender. Originally it was peer-to-peer lending marketplace that allows the public to lend money directly to small and medium-sized businesses. Through this exchange businesses access lower costs of financing than they would get at a bank and the public are able to become lenders and in doing so make a return on their capital. It closed its lending option to "retail investors" between 2020 and 2022, and then announced, in March 2022, that it had made the closure permanent.
RateSetter is a British personal loan provider, founded in 2009 as one of the pioneers of peer-to-peer lending. The London-based company traded in the United Kingdom and through a locally-owned and run business in Australia. The UK business was acquired by Metro Bank in September 2020, leading to closure of the peer-to-peer products in April 2021.
MarketFinance Limited is a British business finance lender, specialising in invoice finance, business loans and corporate finance. MarketFinance was the first company to allow businesses to borrow against individual outstanding invoices.
Rebuildingsociety.com is a Leeds-based peer-to-peer lending platform, founded in 2012 by Daniel Rajkumar, to facilitate the online arranging of finance between lenders and small and medium-sized enterprises. The first loans were completed in February 2013.
Assetz Capital is a British peer-to-peer or "marketplace" lender which allows private and institutional investors to lend money directly to small businesses (SMEs) and property developers.
ThinCats is an alternative lender that provides business loans to mid-sized UK businesses using capital from institutional investors including pension schemes and asset managers. Founded in 2011, ThinCats operates throughout the UK with offices in Ashby, Sheffield, Birmingham, Glasgow and London.
LendInvest is a non-bank mortgage lender in the UK, and is a property lending and investing platform. As an alternative Fintech lender in the property market, LendInvest provides finance to property professionals and small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) around the UK. It also makes it possible for individuals, corporates and institutions to invest in secured property loans originated and underwritten by its mortgage team.
British Business Bank plc (BBB) is a state-owned economic development bank established by the UK Government. Its aim is to increase the supply of credit to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as well as providing business advice services. It is structured as a public limited company and is owned by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. The bank has its headquarters in Sheffield.
Sir Alexander Maxwell "Sandy" Crombie, is a British businessman, chairman of LendingCrowd, chairman of Amiqus Resolution, former chair of Creative Scotland, former non-executive director of Royal Bank of Scotland Group, and formerly the chief executive officer (CEO) of Standard Life, a FTSE 100 long term savings and investment business.
The House Crowd was a UK 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.
Alternative finance refers to financial channels, processes, and instruments that have emerged outside of the traditional finance system such as regulated banks and capital markets. Examples of alternative financing activities through 'online marketplaces' are reward-based crowdfunding, equity crowdfunding, revenue-based financing, online lenders, peer-to-peer consumer and business lending, and invoice trading third party payment platforms.
FOLK2FOLK is a Marketplace lending platform (MPL) specialising in secured lending for business owners across regional Britain. It matches businesses looking for finance with local individual (retail) and institutional investors who receive a fixed interest rate typically 6.5% p.a. secured against UK land or property. Investors receive the same interest rate that the Borrower pays, with FOLK2FOLK making its profit from an arrangement fee and annual renewal fee charged to Borrowers.
EdAid is a funding platform for higher education. EdAid partners with university and professional schools to defer tuition payment, interest-free.
Funding Societies is Southeast Asia’s largest digital financing platform for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), headquartered in Singapore. It was the first such platform in Singapore to engage an escrow agency to independently and safely manage investors’ funds. In Indonesia it is known as Modalku. The platform crossed S$ 1Bn in loans given out in 2019 making it the largest such platform in the region. To date, it has given out more than S$2.5 billion in financing through 4.8 billion loans across the region.
LandlordInvest is a peer-to-peer lending platform which enables people to invest in residential buy to let mortgages and bridging loans. The platform's target audience is buy-to-let and bridging loan borrowers with a near perfect credit score, that are having difficulties with raising finance from traditional lenders due to a one off adverse credit event in the last five years. It was the first residential property-backed Innovative Finance ISA made available to UK savers.
Tide is a UK financial technology company providing mobile-first banking services for small and medium-sized enterprises. It enables businesses to set up a current account and get instant access to various financial services. Established in 2015, Tide is one of the first digital-only finance platforms in the UK to provide current accounts for businesses. As of 2020, it had offices in London (headquarters), Sofia (Bulgaria) and Hyderabad (India).
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