Abundance sold 72% of all Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA) products in the last year; this represented 62% of investment into the new product overall; while the P2P lender is happy with their success they realize their market lead will diminish as they were one of a few platforms approved in the last year; a host of other platforms, including top lender Zopa, have been approved recently and the numbers are sure to be more widely spread out among a larger group of platforms; Bruce Davis, co-founder and joint managing director of Abundance, tells AltFi, "Abundance's success is very much the good news part of the Innovative Finance ISA story to date." Source
Zopa has promised its investors it will speed up the time for selling loans on the platform after investors complained of loan sale times taking weeks; the platform has identified this as an issue, reporting in a blog post, "Recently, some of our processes have been running slower than normal, resulting in it taking longer for you to sell loans and access your money early."; Senior Developer Joe Hutchinson says the platform has been working to upgrade its technology with steady progress and it has more enhancements planned which will provide more capacity on the server improving performance significantly over the next few weeks. Source
Source reports on increased passive investment in UK P2P lending; notes Funding Circle's removal of manual loan investing and a greater number of platforms offering "black box" investing; IFISAs are supporting this trend as well as UK platforms offering the accounts with diversified loan investments. Source
ISA statistics were released on Thursday by HMRC; last year two thousand Innovative Finance ISA accounts were subscribed with retail investors collectively investing GBP17 million (USD $22 million); this compares to GBP22.325 billion ($28.94 billion) into stocks and shares and GBP39.191 billion ($50.81 billion) into cash ISAs; about one third of money invested into IFISAs on P2P platforms last year was from transfers; while the accounts opened and amount invested were low it still shows appetite for such products. Source
The platform currently works with approximately 1,000 brokers; source reports it is focusing its efforts on brokers using the platform regularly with a new master broker system for inactive intermediaries; Funding Circle is requiring brokers to make at least one introduction to the platform per quarter. Source
Funding Circle recently announced it would be shifting away from manual lending to auto bidding; with the change Funding Circle follows its two closest competitors Zopa and RateSetter who only offer auto-bid options; with auto-bid investors gain access to more diversified investments; P2P Finance News outlines the UK P2P industry auto-bid platforms versus manual bid platforms. Source
Habito has raised its Series B funding round, led by Atomico; existing investors Ribbit Capital, Mosaic Ventures and Revolutionary (Ad)Ventures also participated; total funding is now EUR27 million ($35.14 million) for the London based company; the company brings the mortgage process online, describing itself as a digital mortgage broker; one of their biggest competitors is Trussle; funds will be used to integrate with major retail banks and high street lenders; Habito also plans to expand offerings to other parts of the mortgage process including home and life insurance. Source
Assetz Capital is a large P2P lender in the UK and now has authorization from the FCA; the company has lent more than GBP316 million ($410 million) to businesses and is now working on the final stages of its Innovative Finance ISA which it expects will be available in Q4 2017; Stuart Law, CEO of Assetz Capital, stated: "Our cautious approach of employing a world-class credit underwriting team and taking realisable security on loans is essential for our investors' peace of mind. Our focus remains to ensure the growth and security of our lenders' investments, as well as the success of our borrowers' businesses. Our team has done fantastically well to deliver such success to all of our stakeholders over the last few years and yet there is also so much more to achieve ahead of this milestone and we are all excited about the continuing journey." Source
The marketing initiative coincides with the firm's recent rebranding announcement and is part of the company's "Made to Do More" campaign; it is spending GBP12 million ($15.51 million) across media and specialist channels with a focus on business borrower and capital investor awareness; the firm has been a market leader in investment deals in 2017 recently announcing a partnership with Aegon and reporting a $100 million fundraising in January. Source
UK-based Redwood Bank has launched digital banking services after obtaining a banking license for business in the UK; Redwood Bank is the first bank with a 100% cloud-based infrastructure and will offer SME mortgages for business owners and professional landlords as well as a 35-day business savings account; Redwood Bank is wholly-owned by Redwood Financial Partners Ltd. which is controlled primarily by Warrington Borough Council with a 33% ownership stake; the newly launched bank is covered by the UK's Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) which protects customers' eligible deposits of up to a total of GBP85,000 ($109,846). Source