markr
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Post by markr on Mar 11, 2014 9:09:45 GMT
It certainly is, given that FC launched in August 2010.
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markr
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Wellesley & Co (W&Co) in Administration
Business model
Mar 10, 2014 13:18:24 GMT
Post by markr on Mar 10, 2014 13:18:24 GMT
You beat me to it, I was thinking exactly the same and was about to post! I put money in about a month ago and split it equally into the 6, 12 and 18 month markets. So far, only the 12 month funds are lent, so Wellesley are making a thumping loss on my investment so far. I was planning to invest again this month but think I'm going to hold off for now.
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markr
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Post by markr on Mar 6, 2014 22:43:10 GMT
I've got a little piece of Ex******e H******e Ca**s so it was good to hear that they are doing well, and I have to say I did enjoy the little bit of lemon drizzle that they sent me.
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markr
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Post by markr on Mar 6, 2014 11:18:19 GMT
My loan part in Pla****m W***th C******n LLP has now disappeared from my loans list in Dashboard now and moved to Bad Debt which is fine but the amount of Bad Debt is shown as the original loan part size (i.e. ignoring their repayments before defaulting) and the breakdown link under Bad Debt does nothing. Anyone else experienced this? RBS is this a known problem with your UI? Yep, it's the same for me.
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markr
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Post by markr on Mar 6, 2014 11:02:41 GMT
Shall dump them for gross inefficiency tomorrow. Woah, not so fast, sonny Jim, it seems they aren't going to let us dump them unless the nice law man pays up in March as well. In case you hadn't noticed, grumps, this loan is dumpable again.
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markr
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Post by markr on Mar 6, 2014 10:23:02 GMT
I've been dribbling funds into the 5 year market for most of last year and currently my average rate is 5.5%, with my lowest loan part at 4.8% (when I had my settings as reinvest at market rate) and my highest at 5.9%.
One of the most interesting things to happen to rates was in July. Throughout early 2013, rates had been falling steadily, and had plateaued at about 5% for most of May and June. Then, pretty much overnight on the 18th of July, it rose to about 5.5% and has stayed there ever since. I remember it happening, but if you weren't around at the time you can see it if you look at the trend graph, set the start and end dates as May 2013 and March 2014, and it sticks out like a sore thumb.
I have no idea what happened that day, but thank God it did otherwise I reckon RS's rates now would be exactly where Zopa's are, bubbling around 5%.
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markr
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Post by markr on Mar 6, 2014 9:06:04 GMT
I suppose the disadvantage of investing through a company for the rich and famous is that nosy buggers like us can rummage through their accounts
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markr
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Post by markr on Feb 27, 2014 14:30:15 GMT
I dipped my toe in, my toe signed up using a gmail address, my toe's email address was sent to all other accounts registered with gmail address. If that had happened after April, surely it would get them an ear-bashing at the very least from the FCA? It's the sort of thing that suggests to me that they are nowhere near ready for regulation, so I'm removing my toe, or at least not putting any more toes in, until the regulatory dust settles.
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markr
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Post by markr on Feb 27, 2014 13:49:08 GMT
My experience is some will go, some won't. I'm guessing that if all the autobidders with sub-MBR rates already have parts then that one won't sell.
I did sell a 9.5% C loan part at at par, then buy a part in the same loan at 9.7% actual, discounted to 9.9% buyer rate. Pity it was only a £20 part.
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markr
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Post by markr on Feb 26, 2014 21:14:04 GMT
Shall dump them for gross inefficiency tomorrow. Woah, not so fast, sonny Jim, it seems they aren't going to let us dump them unless the nice law man pays up in March as well.
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markr
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Post by markr on Feb 26, 2014 8:51:51 GMT
I think the earliest cashback was 2%, falling to 1% after a while. When I joined the loan numbers were in the early 200s and the cashback was 0.5% routinely with occasional promotional rates of 1% or 1.5% (usually in late June IIRC).
If you routinely bid the same amount then does it really matter which cashback is which - simply apply all cashback in loan number order until you run out. Cashback promotions started and ended on a specific loan number, so the first cashback that appears on your statement will apply to the highest loan number you held at that time, and although new dollops of cashback will appear in the order loans were drawn down (not necessarily in loan-number order), you will have received cashback on every loan part in number order up until you run out of cashback dollops. If you didn't routinely bid the same amount on each loan, you should be able to work out the loan part from size of your cashback from the size of your bid.
Alternatively, don't view the cashback as associated with a specific loan, see it more as a self-managed provision fund that you can use to cover some of your earliest losses.
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markr
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Post by markr on Feb 25, 2014 15:21:33 GMT
Sorry, for those who haven't seen it, it's linked from a blog post of 7th Feb titled "Results and actions from our Contingency Fund Survey". Yes, the document was a draft for discussion, but the discussion period is over, it is supposed to be going live on Friday and no new document has appeared so, at least for now, we must base our views on the draft. To be honest, even if the final version is radically different from the draft, it still amazes me that they even proposed something like this.
For the record, yes the fund is going to be ring-fenced and operated by Ameuri, the same company that operates their recoveries, and I don't know if the two companies share directors.
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markr
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Post by markr on Feb 25, 2014 13:46:29 GMT
I've always been happy with ReSoc, I'm only a toe-dipper that's mainly because there aren't many loans listed there is a limit to how fast I can lend without being over exposed to any loan. My current average rate is about 16% which I think is about right given the risk, and the recent cashback offer has been welcome.
I welcomed the idea of a provision fund (IIRC, it would be the first in the P2B market) and I voted in favour in the recent poll because I was expecting something more like the RS and Zopa funds. Maybe P2B lending is just too risky to be able to maintain a fund that attempts to reimburse all capital and interest and still offer competitive rates to both borrowers and lenders.
Unfortunately, I didn't see the document until after the discussion deadline had passed, but hopefully they got enough feedback to alter some of the more unpalatable parts (the bit about covering ReSoc's own losses is the deal breaker for me, especially since they can cover 100% of theirs but the most I can expect is 80%!)
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markr
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Post by markr on Feb 25, 2014 10:03:47 GMT
Thanks for the clarification Kevin. Looking at how the thread has gone it's easy to see how conspiracy theories gain momentum. Just to add to the conspiracy theory - as soon as the automatic box filling was removed, lending at 5.8% became possible again...
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markr
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Post by markr on Feb 25, 2014 9:45:00 GMT
I've just been reading the terms of the proposed provision fund that ReSoc are introducing. Cripes!
The fund is going to be funded by borrowers and lenders, with the lenders contribution being set initially at 15% of interest earned although ReSoc can change this with just one month's notice. I don't think any other P2P platform explicitly charges lenders for their provision fund, but of course having the fund lowers the rates available to lenders. ReSoc is allowing lenders to opt out of the fund if they prefer.
Some of the things that concern me about it are...
1. The maximum amount that will be paid out of the fund is 80% of outstanding capital, and for some lenders and loans it may be as low as 10%, a far cry from the "every lender every penny" aim of the RS fund. The percentage you get depends on your "risk appetite", i.e. the "average" risk of your portfolio - the riskier your portfolio the less you get. For some reason, my risk appetite has always been shown on my dashboard as D, even when I had no D loans, so hopefully that will be fixed before it is used for this.
2. The managers of the fund will be allowed to invest up to half the fund in ReSoc loans. Isn't this the sort of thing that got the banks into such a mess - if there's a spike in defaults and the fund is needed most, it will be also be suffering losses. There's also an opportunity for ReSoc to manipulate the market.
3. This one is staggering and definitely worth noting before opting in. ReSoc itself will be able to claim for its own operating losses from the fund. If the ReSoc platform makes a loss in a given month, it can apply for up to 10% of the fund to cover those losses. Note that's 10% of the fund, not 10% of the losses. Yes, ReSoc could empty the fund in less than a year to cover its own losses if Ameuri let it (would they? Who knows).
The provision fund is expected to go live on Friday and current ReSoc lenders will be able to opt in, new lenders will have to opt out. Read the final Ts&Cs before opting in though!
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