Post by beeje13 on Sept 19, 2017 17:42:33 GMT
Just got the email... It's overdue by a month or two, but at least they are taking action.
Email copied in full:
Dear all,
Since opening our doors to individual investors at the end of last year, over 1,400 investors have opened a Growth Street lending account. More than £10 million is currently being lent through our platform. It’s been fantastic to see the popularity of our offering to investors, but this has had some negative consequences for the lender experience in recent weeks.
An overwhelming volume of people looking to invest in growing businesses has led to an imbalance in lender supply and borrower demand. Substantial growth in our portfolio of borrowing businesses has still been outpaced by new investment from lenders, resulting in falling Market / Priority Rates. This has led to increases in the time it takes for lenders’ money to be matched with borrowers.
Below are a few steps that we have taken - and are taking - to rectify these issues.
Actions we’ve taken
Limited flow of new lenders
We’ve stopped marketing our product and offering bonuses to new lenders. We’ll only begin encouraging new lenders to join the platform when lender supply is balanced with borrower demand again.
Increased visibility on time to match (and other statistics)
Last month, we released our new Lend Order Statistics page, which shows how much money is currently placed at each rate. It also details average historical times to match, broken down by month. You can find that page here.
Actions we are taking
Introducing rate change notifications
We plan to set up rate change notifications in the coming weeks. This means that when our platform rates change, lenders will automatically be notified via email. This should make it easier for you to manage your money on Growth Street.
Increasing portfolio of borrowers
Our commercial team is busily expanding the number of businesses that borrow through Growth Street. We have always vetted potential business customers extremely carefully, and this will not change. To date, the majority of our borrower growth has been generated organically through word of mouth and referrals. To complement this and to accelerate growth, we have recently launched new business development channels, which should help reduce times to match for lenders.
What this means for you
While there is an excess of liquidity on the platform, lenders will continue to see longer wait times for money to be matched. You may wish to wait until borrower demand has picked up before increasing the amount you lend on the platform. Rest assured that we will notify all lenders of any future changes to the situation as soon as they occur. In the meantime, please continue to check your dashboard and monthly statements to make sure you’re up to date with the performance of your investment.
Please get in touch if you have any questions, suggestions or feedback. We’re confident that the measures we’re putting into place should help give lenders a better service and experience.
Kind regards,
- the Growth Street team
Email copied in full:
Dear all,
Since opening our doors to individual investors at the end of last year, over 1,400 investors have opened a Growth Street lending account. More than £10 million is currently being lent through our platform. It’s been fantastic to see the popularity of our offering to investors, but this has had some negative consequences for the lender experience in recent weeks.
An overwhelming volume of people looking to invest in growing businesses has led to an imbalance in lender supply and borrower demand. Substantial growth in our portfolio of borrowing businesses has still been outpaced by new investment from lenders, resulting in falling Market / Priority Rates. This has led to increases in the time it takes for lenders’ money to be matched with borrowers.
Below are a few steps that we have taken - and are taking - to rectify these issues.
Actions we’ve taken
Limited flow of new lenders
We’ve stopped marketing our product and offering bonuses to new lenders. We’ll only begin encouraging new lenders to join the platform when lender supply is balanced with borrower demand again.
Increased visibility on time to match (and other statistics)
Last month, we released our new Lend Order Statistics page, which shows how much money is currently placed at each rate. It also details average historical times to match, broken down by month. You can find that page here.
Actions we are taking
Introducing rate change notifications
We plan to set up rate change notifications in the coming weeks. This means that when our platform rates change, lenders will automatically be notified via email. This should make it easier for you to manage your money on Growth Street.
Increasing portfolio of borrowers
Our commercial team is busily expanding the number of businesses that borrow through Growth Street. We have always vetted potential business customers extremely carefully, and this will not change. To date, the majority of our borrower growth has been generated organically through word of mouth and referrals. To complement this and to accelerate growth, we have recently launched new business development channels, which should help reduce times to match for lenders.
What this means for you
While there is an excess of liquidity on the platform, lenders will continue to see longer wait times for money to be matched. You may wish to wait until borrower demand has picked up before increasing the amount you lend on the platform. Rest assured that we will notify all lenders of any future changes to the situation as soon as they occur. In the meantime, please continue to check your dashboard and monthly statements to make sure you’re up to date with the performance of your investment.
Please get in touch if you have any questions, suggestions or feedback. We’re confident that the measures we’re putting into place should help give lenders a better service and experience.
Kind regards,
- the Growth Street team