michaelc
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Post by michaelc on Feb 15, 2020 15:19:31 GMT
We have less than 2 months before the end of the tax year, and still no news on the BridgeCrowd's IFISA. I've started thinking the FCA is not willing to allow the BC offer IFISAs because they've found some faults with the platform. I hope I'm being wrong, but the BC's silence is deafening on this. I also note that recent loans are not being received terribly well in the primary market... I certainly agree it would be great if they provided more information. What happened to their marketing at the start of the year? Regarding primary market, I think the issue is they have been dropping their rates slowly over the past few months. On the list right now is only a single 1st charge loan and that is to a property that needs gutting although it does seem discounted to take account of that. At a claimed 70% ltv with "only" .7% per month, it doesn't seem as attractive to me as many prior offerings have been. A year ago, this might have been .8% or .9%. Worth noting also the secondary market has been very strong over the past few months.
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Post by ron on Feb 15, 2020 16:25:49 GMT
We have less than 2 months before the end of the tax year, and still no news on the BridgeCrowd's IFISA. I've started thinking the FCA is not willing to allow the BC offer IFISAs because they've found some faults with the platform. I hope I'm being wrong, but the BC's silence is deafening on this. I also note that recent loans are not being received terribly well in the primary market... FCA doesn't determine ISA manager status, that's HMRC. BC doesn't offer any product that qualifies for an IFISA AIUI (P2P loans, debt securities, bonds, cash) so until BC amends it model to offer such products (have they applied for a36h permission?) doesn't seem to be the possibility of an IFISA. Not sure the FCA is currently a factor (if they have concerns, based on previous cases they aren't going to tell anyone until its too late) "BC doesn't offer any product that qualifies for an IFISA AIUI". That doesn't seem correct, since in one of their regular emails last year BC stated that IFISA was under way...
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iRobot
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Post by iRobot on Feb 15, 2020 17:28:01 GMT
"BC doesn't offer any product that qualifies for an IFISA AIUI". That doesn't seem correct, since in one of their regular emails last year BC stated that IFISA was under way... Unless you have anything more recent, the last mention I received of any thing ISA-like was 19 th July 2019: (Their bold)
There was a teeny bit of activity around the Somo website, but it's not functional. Haven't noticed any 'smooth new web features'; nor any 'new loan products' and definitely no sign of 'the long awaited ISA' be it of an IF... or any other flavour. Not complaining though. Quite the opposite in fact. Platforms have a habit of deteriorating when changes are made and for my money, BC would do well to continue with their own stated intention: ' We don’t intend to change what does not need fixing.'
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p2pfan
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Post by p2pfan on Mar 3, 2020 0:11:26 GMT
We have less than 2 months before the end of the tax year, and still no news on the BridgeCrowd's IFISA. I've started thinking the FCA is not willing to allow the BC offer IFISAs because they've found some faults with the platform. I hope I'm being wrong, but the BC's silence is deafening on this. I also note that recent loans are not being received terribly well in the primary market... I certainly agree it would be great if they provided more information. What happened to their marketing at the start of the year? Regarding primary market, I think the issue is they have been dropping their rates slowly over the past few months. On the list right now is only a single 1st charge loan and that is to a property that needs gutting although it does seem discounted to take account of that. At a claimed 70% ltv with "only" .7% per month, it doesn't seem as attractive to me as many prior offerings have been. A year ago, this might have been .8% or .9%. Worth noting also the secondary market has been very strong over the past few months. Yes, as I'm sure many lenders have, I've noticed the gradual ongoing slide in returns. In only the last several months alone, loans with fairly high LTVs and backed with often difficult-to-sell properties are paying significantly less interest. Considering these are medium to high risk loans to borrowers who often don't have the best of records (the number of former bankruptees I've seen trying to borrow money through BC is remarkable) I'm certainly going to be lending much less often through BC.
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Post by ron on Mar 28, 2020 17:14:19 GMT
From Louis' latest email:
"New Site, IFISA,
Our new site and IFISA launch has been paused until the shoots of recovery are within sight."
Not sure why the IFISA launch process should be paused now. Sure, many investors will be reducing their new investments during this crisis, but - especially given a new tax year is approaching - it would be great to have an IFISA in place...
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criston
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Post by criston on May 25, 2020 11:39:23 GMT
I certainly agree it would be great if they provided more information. What happened to their marketing at the start of the year? Regarding primary market, I think the issue is they have been dropping their rates slowly over the past few months. On the list right now is only a single 1st charge loan and that is to a property that needs gutting although it does seem discounted to take account of that. At a claimed 70% ltv with "only" .7% per month, it doesn't seem as attractive to me as many prior offerings have been. A year ago, this might have been .8% or .9%. Worth noting also the secondary market has been very strong over the past few months. Yes, as I'm sure many lenders have, I've noticed the gradual ongoing slide in returns. In only the last several months alone, loans with fairly high LTVs and backed with often difficult-to-sell properties are paying significantly less interest. Considering these are medium to high risk loans to borrowers who often don't have the best of records (the number of former bankruptees I've seen trying to borrow money through BC is remarkable) I'm certainly going to be lending much less often through BC. What means do you use, to identify or detect former bankrupts ? As far as low interest/high LTVs are concerned, I note early to mid lock-down the interest rates went up, with reasonable LTVs. Recently we are back to low interest rates for high LTVs.
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michaelc
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Post by michaelc on May 25, 2020 21:51:13 GMT
Yes, as I'm sure many lenders have, I've noticed the gradual ongoing slide in returns. In only the last several months alone, loans with fairly high LTVs and backed with often difficult-to-sell properties are paying significantly less interest. Considering these are medium to high risk loans to borrowers who often don't have the best of records (the number of former bankruptees I've seen trying to borrow money through BC is remarkable) I'm certainly going to be lending much less often through BC. What means do you use, to identify or detect former bankrupts ? As far as low interest/high LTVs are concerned, I note early to mid lock-down the interest rates went up, with reasonable LTVs. Recently we are back to low interest rates for high LTVs. Agree with that. On the bankrupt point, even if you did know someone was a former banktupt, how would you know they are "trying to borrow through BC" unless you were a BC employee ?
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Post by mattygroves on Jun 25, 2020 12:54:38 GMT
What means do you use, to identify or detect former bankrupts ? As far as low interest/high LTVs are concerned, I note early to mid lock-down the interest rates went up, with reasonable LTVs. Recently we are back to low interest rates for high LTVs. Agree with that. On the bankrupt point, even if you did know someone was a former banktupt, how would you know they are "trying to borrow through BC" unless you were a BC employee ? The London Gazette has a record of all bankruptcy notices and is publically searchable. Not hard to search for potential borrowers as part of DD.
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michaelc
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Post by michaelc on Jun 25, 2020 14:36:21 GMT
Agree with that. On the bankrupt point, even if you did know someone was a former banktupt, how would you know they are "trying to borrow through BC" unless you were a BC employee ? The London Gazette has a record of all bankruptcy notices and is publically searchable. Not hard to search for potential borrowers as part of DD. You still wouldn't know if they'd applied for a loan.
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Post by mattygroves on Jun 26, 2020 12:36:01 GMT
The London Gazette has a record of all bankruptcy notices and is publically searchable. Not hard to search for potential borrowers as part of DD. You still wouldn't know if they'd applied for a loan. I’m not registered for this site but on other sites I can usually work out the name of the borrower and assumed the same would apply here. If not then I agree it would be impossible to check.
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Post by ron on Sept 12, 2020 8:30:56 GMT
The latest email's subject should have been "Don't mention the 'I' word", instead of the 'C' word: no mention of any upcoming IFISA unfortunately... It would be good if Louis & Team could shed some light and clarity on the topic, since this would be very important and a game changer for many investors.
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michaelc
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Post by michaelc on Sept 12, 2020 20:50:05 GMT
Or the "L" word. I would like to see the late stats published every month.
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Post by ron on Sept 13, 2020 9:51:29 GMT
Or the "L" word. I would like to see the late stats published every month. I fully agree. BC has been a great platform in my personal experience, but I’m very reluctant to step up my investment there if their transparency remains as poor as it is now - this is the case for IFISA, stats, etc.
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