star dust
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Post by star dust on Sept 7, 2015 15:46:07 GMT
Just got the following email: "The Assetz Capital 'Quick Access Account' will launch tomorrow! We are delighted to announce that from tomorrow, you and your peers will be able to invest in our brand-new Quick Access Account (QAA) via Assetz Capital's platform.The QAA has been designed to be the most client-friendly account in the UK P2P market by offering our lenders unprecedented liquidity and ease of access. This revolutionary account allows the majority of investors to sell loans for cash on the same day as their request to exit in normal market conditions. In return for this exceptional level of liquidity, the QAA offers a capped, target rate of 3.75% a year (before tax and any loan losses). In addition, this new account includes a discretionary Provision Fund to reduce the risk of loss to our lenders. What's more, the QAA automatically diversifies your money across a wide range of loans and businesses. This enables you to spread your risk quickly and easily, diversifying into many different loans without having to monitor new loan launches manually. For example, this broad spectrum of business borrowers includes firms from manufacturing, service and distribution sectors. In short, we at Assetz Capital have come up with a highly innovative account that combines fair, risk-adjusted rates of return with rapid access to your cash in normal market conditions and built-in diversification. Here are the main features of our new Quick Access Account: A capped, target interest rate of 3.75% a year (before tax and any loan losses). This rate may vary each month, as notified on the first day of each month, but will not fall below this target rate. Unprecedented liquidity and ease of access. In normal market conditions the majority of lenders will be able to exit QAA loans for cash on the same day as their request to sell. This is much faster than the typical speed of access allowed by many other P2P-lending platforms. The QAA will also hold a substantial cash balance to facilitate the quick access. All loans are automatically included in a separate, discretionary Provision Fund intended to help to protect lenders from income delays and income and/or capital losses in the Quick Access Account. All loans included in the QAA are highly secured against loss with realisable security against borrowers' assets. In order to reduce potential losses to lenders, we will often take additional security on top. All QAA loans can be tracked, monitored and managed via our comprehensive and market-leading portal. Interest is earned and paid to QAA lenders monthly, on the first day of each month. QAA loans may range in duration from one month to five years, but in normal market conditions most loans can be sold for cash on the same day exit requests are made. All loans in the Quick Access Account are also available for individual selection through the Manual Loan Investment section of your Loan Dashboard. However, lending via the QAA means that your money is automatically diversified across a broad range of loans, thus spreading your risk across a portfolio of loans. Lastly, always remember that peer-to-peer business lending involves making loans to British firms. Loans can last up to five years in duration. Therefore, P2P lending is not well suited to shorter-term investors, unless a liquid secondary market exists for selling on loans so as to cash out and exit early. To sum up, why leave your money not growing and not earning interest, when tomorrow you can start earning up to 3.75% gross a year in our fast and flexible Quick Access " hmmm... 3.75% can't wait to invest  , but tomorrow would be even better if some of the promised upcoming loans could drawdown!
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Post by chris on Sept 7, 2015 15:52:58 GMT
hmmm... 3.75% can't wait to invest , but tomorrow would be even better if some of the promised upcoming loans could drawdown! This isn't an invest and hold account, or even a one month access account, it's designed to be near instant access account in normal market conditions. One feature the email didn't cover is that you can set your other accounts to automatically invest idle cash in the QAA. So you could have £10k invested in the MLIA, for example, waiting for a loan to draw down or waiting for obscure loan units to become available and that money will earn 3.75% until it's needed. The system will automatically pull the money out of the QAA as soon as loan units become available on the loans you're interested in.
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oldgrumpy
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Post by oldgrumpy on Sept 7, 2015 15:54:23 GMT
"This revolutionary account allows the majority of investors to sell loans for cash on the same day as their request to exit in normal market conditions."
Well that is the inbuilt get-out for AC. What are normal market conditions when such a high percentage of current loans are "suspended" for various reasons.
I wonder how efficient this will turn out to be as a "holding account" earning some interest.
Edit: The system will automatically pull the money out of the QAA as soon as loan units become available on the loans you're interested in.
Ah!! Interesting.
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Post by Butch Cassidy on Sept 7, 2015 16:00:41 GMT
Not sure how 10/12/13/15% loan yields boil down to 3.75% even with PF etc???
I am losing a bit of faith in AC - whilst AH, Chris et al seem to have the right ideas it tends to get lost in translation somehow & is starting to feel a bit like FC (& even sometimes Bondora!!) where the lenders needs come a very distant second to the platform growth objectives.
Recent example: Leeds loan #45 paid the monthly interest but AC returned it due to not being from the designated account & whilst compliance is important it is not as important as getting my money back (still not paid - I am fairly relaxed about this loan but the principle is worrying) but when I queried it on the Q&A it was deleted & they are now hiding behind spurious AML/KYC regulations via e-mail, which is an easy catch all way to push the risk onto lenders without any extra work for the AC admin staff. It seems like any business sense stops at the MD's door & no one can think like a lender.
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Post by chris on Sept 7, 2015 16:01:50 GMT
"This revolutionary account allows the majority of investors to sell loans for cash on the same day as their request to exit in normal market conditions."
Well that is the inbuilt get-out for AC. What are normal market conditions when such a high percentage of current loans are "suspended" for various reasons. It's a legal requirement for us to put that as there are no guarantees. However the investment strategy is designed to keep the account liquid and should keep us clear of suspended loans (without doing anything silly like pulling out of a loan before it's suspended, etc. - no inside trading!). I expect most withdrawals to take a fraction of a second, and there are per user caps on investments to prevent any one user swamping the account and being able to skew liquidity, with the provision fund being present if that does happen. There's a live figure on the dashboard that shows the average withdrawal time over the last 48 hours (may move to a cached figure updated every minute or two if the load proves too high with the live figure). So you'll be able to judge us in real time.
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star dust
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Post by star dust on Sept 7, 2015 16:04:32 GMT
hmmm... 3.75% can't wait to invest , but tomorrow would be even better if some of the promised upcoming loans could drawdown! This isn't an invest and hold account, or even a one month access account, it's designed to be near instant access account in normal market conditions. One feature the email didn't cover is that you can set your other accounts to automatically invest idle cash in the QAA. So you could have £10k invested in the MLIA, for example, waiting for a loan to draw down or waiting for obscure loan units to become available and that money will earn 3.75% until it's needed. The system will automatically pull the money out of the QAA as soon as loan units become available on the loans you're interested in. To be fair I'm sure some will use it and it doesn't compare badly with various monthly market P2P things, also it may help liquidity for the rest of us; but I am sure most here monitor things closely enough to pull funds in and out when needed, and I tend to use the GEIA for that at present! Sure it's gearing up for the appeal to the masses though.
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Post by chris on Sept 7, 2015 16:05:35 GMT
Not sure how 10/12/13/15% loan yields boil down to 3.75% even with PF etc???
I am losing a bit of faith in AC - whilst AH, Chris et al seem to have the right ideas it tends to get lost in translation somehow & is starting to feel a bit like FC (& even sometimes Bondora!!) where the lenders needs come a very distant second to the platform growth objectives. If you don't like the facility then don't use it, there are other choices. Compared to the type of account that offers similar speed of access it should be game changing, but it's not going to be for everyone. It's also not really designed to be your primary method of investing. Recent example: Leeds loan #45 paid the monthly interest but AC returned it due to not being from the designated account & whilst compliance is important it is not as important as getting my money back (still not paid - I am fairly relaxed about this loan but the principle is worrying) but when I queried it on the Q&A it was deleted & they are now hiding behind spurious AML/KYC regulations via e-mail, which is an easy catch all way to push the risk onto lenders without any extra work for the AC admin staff. It seems like any business sense stops at the MD's door & no one can think like a lender. Compliance isn't just important, complying with these regulations keeps me and my fellow directors out of jail. If we wilfully breach AML regulations that is the ultimate penalty, so I think your stance is very unfair.
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Post by chris on Sept 7, 2015 16:08:11 GMT
This isn't an invest and hold account, or even a one month access account, it's designed to be near instant access account in normal market conditions. One feature the email didn't cover is that you can set your other accounts to automatically invest idle cash in the QAA. So you could have £10k invested in the MLIA, for example, waiting for a loan to draw down or waiting for obscure loan units to become available and that money will earn 3.75% until it's needed. The system will automatically pull the money out of the QAA as soon as loan units become available on the loans you're interested in. To be fair I'm sure some will use it and it doesn't compare badly with various monthly market P2P things, also it may help liquidity for the rest of us; but I am sure most here monitor things closely enough to pull funds in and out when needed, and I tend to use the GEIA for that at present! Sure it's gearing up for the appeal to the masses though. And most here probably prefer the MLIA to the other accounts. They're not all designed for the same audience. People probably don't monitor things as closely as you think. There are multiple millions of pounds sat idle on the platform at the moment that would all be investable in this account with the flick of a switch.
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bg
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Post by bg on Sept 7, 2015 16:11:16 GMT
"This revolutionary account allows the majority of investors to sell loans for cash on the same day as their request to exit in normal market conditions."
Well that is the inbuilt get-out for AC. What are normal market conditions when such a high percentage of current loans are "suspended" for various reasons. It's a legal requirement for us to put that as there are no guarantees. However the investment strategy is designed to keep the account liquid and should keep us clear of suspended loans (without doing anything silly like pulling out of a loan before it's suspended, etc. - no inside trading!). I expect most withdrawals to take a fraction of a second, and there are per user caps on investments to prevent any one user swamping the account and being able to skew liquidity, with the provision fund being present if that does happen. There's a live figure on the dashboard that shows the average withdrawal time over the last 48 hours (may move to a cached figure updated every minute or two if the load proves too high with the live figure). So you'll be able to judge us in real time. I don't know why people are complaining. The rate is higher than any other platform offering even a monthly deposit period. i would like to know more details regarding the 'investment strategy' however - particularly in light of the variable liquidity issues. If someone (or a group of people) wants to withdraw a chunk of money, where does it come from? What are the investment caps? How will the fund keep clear of loans that run into difficulties - if it's that obvious please can you not bring troublesome loans to the platform in the first place?!
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Post by Butch Cassidy on Sept 7, 2015 16:13:54 GMT
Compliance isn't just important, complying with these regulations keeps me and my fellow directors out of jail. If we wilfully breach AML regulations that is the ultimate penalty, so I think your stance is very unfair.
No one is suggesting breaching AML regs but if a borrower owes 19K in interest, pays 19k to AC I would expect that you could argue keeping & distributing it to lenders was a reasonable action & not in breach of the law, even if it required further paperwork to "prove the source" later. Simply sending it back, exposing lenders to further non payment risk & then hiding behind AML/KYC is not a fair way to treat lenders & deleting/hiding their concerns from the Q&A is very poor form IMO.
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niceguy37
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Post by niceguy37 on Sept 7, 2015 16:14:48 GMT
hmmm... 3.75% can't wait to invest , but tomorrow would be even better if some of the promised upcoming loans could drawdown! This isn't an invest and hold account, or even a one month access account, it's designed to be near instant access account in normal market conditions. One feature the email didn't cover is that you can set your other accounts to automatically invest idle cash in the QAA. So you could have £10k invested in the MLIA, for example, waiting for a loan to draw down or waiting for obscure loan units to become available and that money will earn 3.75% until it's needed. The system will automatically pull the money out of the QAA as soon as loan units become available on the loans you're interested in. This has the potential to be very useful.
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star dust
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Post by star dust on Sept 7, 2015 16:15:52 GMT
People probably don't monitor things as closely as you think. There are multiple millions of pounds sat idle on the platform at the moment that would all be investable in this account with the flick of a switch. Well, I did say round here, but what's that phrase...... more £££ than sense! Hope it works well for all concerned then  .
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Post by chris on Sept 7, 2015 16:22:00 GMT
Compliance isn't just important, complying with these regulations keeps me and my fellow directors out of jail. If we wilfully breach AML regulations that is the ultimate penalty, so I think your stance is very unfair.
No one is suggesting breaching AML regs but if a borrower owes 19K in interest, pays 19k to AC I would expect that you could argue keeping & distributing it to lenders was a reasonable action & not in breach of the law, even if it required further paperwork to "prove the source" later. Simply sending it back, exposing lenders to further non payment risk & then hiding behind AML/KYC is not a fair way to treat lenders & deleting/hiding their concerns from the Q&A is very poor form IMO.
We can't keep the cash in the client money account as that would be in breach of the regulations, and we couldn't distribute it to lenders. So we'd have to take the money out into our own accounts which I would guess is a breach of client money rules and the rules of our trust. I'll check the details but sending it back is likely the only legal course open to us. This isn't something that would have been done lightly. I will look into the Q&A issue though as this is the type of question that, if phrased as per the rules, should not be censored unless it is a duplicate.
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SteveT
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Post by SteveT on Sept 7, 2015 16:25:10 GMT
hmmm... 3.75% can't wait to invest , but tomorrow would be even better if some of the promised upcoming loans could drawdown! This isn't an invest and hold account, or even a one month access account, it's designed to be near instant access account in normal market conditions. One feature the email didn't cover is that you can set your other accounts to automatically invest idle cash in the QAA. So you could have £10k invested in the MLIA, for example, waiting for a loan to draw down or waiting for obscure loan units to become available and that money will earn 3.75% until it's needed. The system will automatically pull the money out of the QAA as soon as loan units become available on the loans you're interested in. , just to check my understanding of your comment: If a highly oversubscribed new loan goes live on the platform and you have a target set for it in your MLIA but your funds for buying into it are sitting in this new QAA, is it guaranteed that you will be allocated just as much of the new loan as if your cash was sitting waiting in the MLIA? I'd hate to miss out on my full allocation of a 12%+ loan for 4 or 5 years just to receive a couple of days' interest at 3.75%!
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Post by chris on Sept 7, 2015 16:28:02 GMT
It's a legal requirement for us to put that as there are no guarantees. However the investment strategy is designed to keep the account liquid and should keep us clear of suspended loans (without doing anything silly like pulling out of a loan before it's suspended, etc. - no inside trading!). I expect most withdrawals to take a fraction of a second, and there are per user caps on investments to prevent any one user swamping the account and being able to skew liquidity, with the provision fund being present if that does happen. There's a live figure on the dashboard that shows the average withdrawal time over the last 48 hours (may move to a cached figure updated every minute or two if the load proves too high with the live figure). So you'll be able to judge us in real time. I don't know why people are complaining. The rate is higher than any other platform offering even a monthly deposit period. i would like to know more details regarding the 'investment strategy' however - particularly in light of the variable liquidity issues. If someone (or a group of people) wants to withdraw a chunk of money, where does it come from? What are the investment caps? How will the fund keep clear of loans that run into difficulties - if it's that obvious please can you not bring troublesome loans to the platform in the first place?! Not sure we're publishing the details of the investment strategy, so I'm not sure how much I can give away. Probably one of those areas where we're not going to broadcast it but will explain 1:1 as there is competitive information involved. For launch there's a £25k per lender cap and £1m total investment cap on the account. Both are likely to rise over time. There'll be a %age of the account kept as a cash balance and the aim is also to have a queue of cash waiting to invest to guarantee additional liquidity. It's a first in first out queue. Regarding avoiding troublesome loans it's more a function of the account having a preference for investing early on in loans but selling through relatively early to help provide liquidity to the rest of the platform, so the account is unlikely to hold most loans for a significant period. There's obviously always a chance of an early default or issue but again there is a provision fund there to step in and cover if that happens.
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, but tomorrow would be even better if some of the promised upcoming loans could drawdown!
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