pikestaff
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Post by pikestaff on Feb 19, 2018 17:42:13 GMT
Downing are a long-standing investment house with a reputation to protect. I have in the past invested in a number of their planned exit VCTs which have done well enough. Not spectacularly, but they are in line to do what they said on the tin. I've been in Downing Crowd from the start and have a substantial amount with them (a similar amount to my AC and RS investments, but less than I have on TC). The quality of documentation is good and I think the rates are OK for the risk. Most (not all) of the bonds relate to seasoned, operational assets, which is not the case generally with p2p. Where that's not so the LTVs are relatively low. The main disadvantages are (1) no SM, so no liquidity (not an issue for me), and (2) there are not many bonds in which to invest. Also it's not possible to set up automatic withdrawals. However, they email you whenever a payment is made and it's easy enough to withdraw when that happens. thanks for insight. I thought also they'd have reputation to protect. their faq now states that "No fees are deducted from the interest rates advertised." Presume that's what you find to be the case. Correct.
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hazellend
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Post by hazellend on Feb 21, 2018 10:49:27 GMT
No fees? Very kind of them to do it for free
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zlb
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Post by zlb on Aug 7, 2018 15:16:38 GMT
Downing crowd have deposited the interest earned (the generous 2% for a couple of months) within my ISA, into a normal lending account (so although I've never opened one, they've opened one for me) so that it doesn't affect people's ISA deposit limit.... ??
Doesn't this sound strange?
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ilmoro
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'Wondering which of the bu***rs to blame, and watching for pigs on the wing.' - Pink Floyd
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Post by ilmoro on Aug 7, 2018 22:58:49 GMT
No, AIUI if they don't have permission to offer cash ISA (act as a deposit taker) then they have to. Crowd4angels, LLI do the same for any sums earnt outside ISA rules.
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zlb
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Post by zlb on Oct 5, 2018 12:39:04 GMT
Their current property bond is 4.5% 10 months in 70%ltv small range of property loans. My concern is that this is a junk bond having seen performance of Ly and others. Or are downing better at initial. DD? I know they're long running in finance, but I wonder whether they are offering worse loans on crowd, and keeping better loans for private. Thanks for any tips.
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rick24
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Post by rick24 on Oct 31, 2018 13:39:33 GMT
No fees? Very kind of them to do it for free They take their fees after the investors have been paid. This, at least, is what it said in the documents for the projects in which I invested and I assume it hasn't changed.
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zlb
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Post by zlb on Dec 14, 2018 17:37:42 GMT
Hand written investment tokens in post. What a waste of money. Not impressed at all, including the wasteful use of environmentally worsening plastic padded envelope for something that isn't in the slightest bit breakable, a card wallet.
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Greenwood2
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Post by Greenwood2 on Dec 14, 2018 21:20:37 GMT
Hand written investment tokens in post. What a waste of money. Not impressed at all, including the wasteful use of environmentally worsening plastic padded envelope for something that isn't in the slightest bit breakable, a card wallet. Just got a very small chest of draws delivered in a cardboard box big enough for a family of four to live in (only a slight exaggeration).
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bigfoot12
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Post by bigfoot12 on Dec 15, 2018 11:17:00 GMT
Hand written investment tokens in post. What a waste of money. Not impressed at all, including the wasteful use of environmentally worsening plastic padded envelope for something that isn't in the slightest bit breakable, a card wallet. Just got a very small chest of draws delivered in a cardboard box big enough for a family of four to live in (only a slight exaggeration). I bought a new red button for our shower - the tiny red thing that we have to press to take the shower temperature over some pre set value. The packet was smaller than a normal first class stamp, but the delivery box was larger than a shoe box!
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Post by parag on Mar 6, 2019 14:49:56 GMT
Hello all. Many thanks for taking the time to create this thread and to all the contributors. Apologies for the delay in engaging with you on here but we will now be available to answer any questions on a regular basis. I will attempt to reply to all the questions / points raised below. biscuitbri - If you'd like some more information about us and our offerings please do let me know and I'll arrange a call. Please also see the response below about our fees. liso - The rates of return advertised are what investors are due to receive - we take our fee by way of a spread between the rate the borrower pays and what we offer our investors. rick24 Thank you. If you would like more information on our 'DDF Property Bond', please let me know. DDF's entire loan book is published at the end of every month on the 'Updates' tab. This shows postcode, loan type, total loan amount, loan term and estimated LTGDV for each loan DDF has made so provides an insight into the type of loans being made by DDF. pikestaff Thanks for your comments. We have looked at a secondary loan market and an auto-withdrawal feature and will of course update you as soon as we have some timings for both. As you stated, there is an automated email which is triggered whenever we apply an interest or capital repayment to an investors account. michaelc p2pclive - I bet our CFO wishes our office space only cost £39! We occupy the whole 6th floor of St. Magnus House which is not cheap I assure you! The views of the river, bridges and The Shard are quite spectacular though. zlb - The interest from our IFISA promotion was paid into investors standard accounts as HMRC do not allow any funds earned from 'promotional' activities to be credited to an IFISA. When investors open an IFISA with us, a standard account is also opened as any corrections due to oversubscriptions, death etc. mostly need to be moved to a standard account (outside the IFISA). The way our DDF bond is structured means that you are lending to the entity making the actual loans and not the end borrower. We certainly do not offer 'worse loans on crowd' and keep better loans for private. We also publish the entire loan book for DDF at the end of each month which can be found on the 'Update' tab on each DDF bond. The Offer Document has all the information about the structure and terms of the bond which you can download from our website. If you'd like anymore information, please do let me know. rick24 - That is still correct. Our fees are contingent on our investors being repaid first. If you have any more questions, please let me know and I'll do my best to help. Kind regards, Parag |
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pikestaff
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Post by pikestaff on Mar 8, 2019 7:44:07 GMT
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Post by parag on Mar 8, 2019 9:06:50 GMT
pikestaff - Thank you very much, please do reach out if you need anything.
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Post by mrclondon on Mar 9, 2019 13:10:28 GMT
parag It would be helpful if you could clarify where Downing Crowd fits in the FCA's regulatory framework, and particularly the implications for investors in the bond structure that has been adopted (as opposed to p2p direct lending).
The footer of the DowningCrowd website states "Downing LLP ("Downing") is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (firm reference number 545025)."
The FCA register page for 545025 does not list amongst the permissions "Operating an electronic system in relation to lending" which to me implies that the 36H provisions with regard to offseting capital losses against p2p taxable income would not apply to investments made through Downing Crowd.
I appreciate that FundingEmpire does have 36H permissions under 734921 and that Downing Crowd was added as a trading name of Tally Marketplace Lending Ltd on the FCA register on 28th January 2019. However, Downing Crowd is being promoted under the Downing LLP banner for regulatory purposes not under that of Tally Marketplace Lending Ltd.
In terms of my own investments in debt instruments, I am only investing in those that are unambigously 36H compliant.
(I was expecting that Tally Marketplace Lending Ltd on aquisition by Downing LLP to have been renamed Downing Crowd Ltd, or similiar, and for Downing Crowd to be promoted using the regulatory permissions aquired from FE under 734921 not the Downing LLP permissions under 545025. Possibly this is still a work in progress.)
It is also somewhat disturbing to see rather than the previous person of significant control cease, and a new person of significant control be created, what Downing LLP have done is to edit the PSC record (pdf) from the time of the managment buyout in 2016 to change the name to Downing LLP. This mis-represents the historical records for Tally Marketplace Lending Ltd, as it shows Downing LLP as PSC since 2016. The fact that the legal advisors of Downing LLP believe this is in any way appropriate behavior for a regulated company is astounding.
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Post by parag on Mar 11, 2019 9:47:36 GMT
Hi mrclondon. 'Downing Crowd' will continue to operate under its (Downing LLPs) current permissions and model of arranging investments in bonds which, by their nature, are not A36H compliant loans. The permissions for 'Operating an electronic system in relation to lending' remain with Tally Marketplace Lending Limited. At such point where A36H loans are offered on the Downing Crowd site, this will be made clear along with the fact that Downing Crowd is a trading name / style of 'Tally Marketplace Lending Limited' (or its new name) and Downing LLP. There are no plans to amend the current model; in the future we would add A36H compliant loans to the Downing Crowd platform once we've finalised the offering and have suitable opportunities. Regarding the change of PSC, this was undertaken online and the effective date of the change entered. However as you correctly state, this inadvertently backdated the appointment of Downing LLP as the entity with significant control. We've spoken to Companies House and are in the process of amending this. Hope this helps. Regards, Parag |
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shimself
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Post by shimself on Jul 24, 2019 21:17:09 GMT
Unsecured loan, at 13% LTV. But it's unsecured I wrote. Back comes the reply (so the good news is that they replied) to say It gives an indication of how much value there is in the business, e.g. what assets they could sell, if they had to repay the that debt.
This is an unsecured bond so the bondholders do not hold a charge over the company's assets. They do sit ahead of £140m+ of equity investors in the event of insolvency, though behind any secured creditors should there be any.
At 3%pa over 10 years I think not
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