16 loans available

Not a penny of mine either. I've been voting with my feet on several sites for a while now. P2P sure ain't like what it used to be!!

g. ( ex mushroom )    

Perhaps.

They are scratching about trying to source the rest of the V**** BM interest due.

But they have forwarded to FS, we are led to believe, some interest. So they are keen to move forward, which is encouraging. They would not do that if they were not certain they can complete. OTOH they have known for a while when it was due, so payment should have been in place on time. Who would lend them the money if they are maxed out on FS? Perhaps another deal on FS? But we can’t ask that. It only OUR money on the line. Predominantly.

Anyway, thanks for the reminder, just cancelled the renewals. And I see max discounts available on SM. I was slightly  over exposed to this anyway.

I don't invest in new loans any more personally, and I stopped several months ago. I do renew some things I am already in....bling, Bentleys, Italian books and such but any interest and repayments from other stuff is just withdrawn. All confidence has been lost in Funding Secure due to their inaction on loans that have been overdue for years. The updates and excuses we are given beggar belief. The lack of action being taken is the final straw and reflects to me the fact that my interests are not aligned with Funding Secure's interests when it comes to defaulting loans and selling the associated assets.

I don't think I am alone and the massive amount of loans waiting to be filled confirms this. After several years in p2p I have also come to the conclusion the risk taken is not reflected in the returns I receive and I would rather be in the stock market. I do think it is still possible to outperform on p2p if you are extremely selective in the loans you invest in (having a lower amount of capital to invest would help greatly in achieving that). Even with that platform failures and loans which appear to me to be fraudulent are real headaches we should not have to deal with.

The chickens are finally coming home to roost after a year of godawful communications and management of the loan book. 

Perhaps when FS start valuing customers and the protection/return of their capital more than they currently do they'll be able to fill some new loans. 

I think people are again reacting to what is merely the normal ebb and flow in demand v supply.

We have had a lot of new loans recently (and some very big loans at that) which has tipped that delicate balance, I wouldn't read any more into it than that.

In fact, if you look at another indicator I like to track, the size of loans listed at the max 1% discount, yes it has spiked up a bit recently (from zero 2 weeks ago to £179k) but is half the amount that was listed at the end of May.  I would insert a graph of this metric but can't figure out how to do so!  

If FS put the brakes on new loans for a period then things would soon settle down again.

Who dares wins loses...

I do invest in the very occasional loan - the sort that usually drops out of the (soon to be?) Top Twenty hit list very quickly.
There haven't been many of late.


I am glad FS must now be feeling lender pressure as have other platforms (I'm thinking L here). They've always had on their side the fact that the loans are relatively small (sometimes just a few hundred quid !) and they have some underwriter backing.

However they've clearly gone too far in the lender vs broker allegiance stakes. Their last newsletter if I recall simply showed them trumpeting their turnover.

That said, given that most of their loans are small compared to some of the other problematic sites mentioned (L being the obvious one) I wouldn't expect as much DD to be conducted. In fact I remain far more concerned about L doing nowhere near enough DD on 10M plus loans than I do with FS with their typical few hundred K loan. The smaller loans are also easier for lenders to conduct their own DD.

The main issue I have with FS is recoveries and their business model. If I'm not wrong (and I could easily be so appreciate being corrected) FS receive their fee at the start of the loan and if it defaults and all interest is recovered, FS will (like us) receive more interest in the form of a fee. I don't know if that fee is enough incentive for them to chase too vigorously the borrowers since in many cases if there isn't enough to pay interest, then FS receive no more cash for their recovery efforts so why bother?

For me, the platform's business model which may disincentive recoveries goes to the heart of this a problem within p2p in general. Does anyone know of any platforms where this problem is addressed?