Access Accounts: Changes & Useful Info - April 2020 (AC)
Apr 7, 2020 18:26:05 GMT
davee39, registerme, and 7 more like this
Post by star dust on Apr 7, 2020 18:26:05 GMT
Mod Hat On/
Following a request from shirehorse - p2pindependentforum.com/post/380064/thread
I’ve created this pinned thread to contain significant and useful information pertaining to the current liquidity situation on AC. I’ve started it off with three quotes from stuartassetzcapital , but this is not intended to be all encompassing or restricted to AC staff only. So please quote any past factually useful posts from other threads to it, and continue to use it for more important factual information about the AC access situation and leave the “chat” and discussion to the other threads.
Thanks.
FAQs are now posted as a supplement to the blog document :
www.assetzcapital.co.uk/blog/access-accounts-update
Dear all
I would like to address the questions, incorrect statements and wild speculation on this thread and also thank those who see what we are seeking to achieve here with these regrettable, but necessary, actions.
We can of course confirm that we are no different to the vast majority of the companies in the world's economy, excepting perhaps food retailers and hand sanitiser companies and similar, in that we have seen income and sales lower during the lockdown and we are therefore also taking all the same measures as pretty much every other company in this country and indeed the rest of the world. Anyone that denies that this pandemic is happening, or that these actions are not absolutely necessary, when even the most cash rich of companies are having to take cost reduction measures, perhaps does not yet realise the seriousness of the situation or not yet have hospitalised relations and friends. Our actions, like pretty much every other company, include directors having salaries reduced very substantially, very substantial overhead cuts across the board, and I mean everything, meaning that we have brought down monthly costs by a huge 50%. This, combined with temporary changes to our charging structures, puts us in a sustainable position during the worst of this period over the next few months. The costs of servicing the loan book have increased substantially and we have addressed that.
In a situation that has no certain endpoint yet, nor any predictable economic recovery trajectory at present, not taking the action that we have taken would be a gross dereliction of duty in looking after our stakeholders, including you, our investors. We are not short of cash ourselves but how long does this situation continue? Three months is the initial Government timeframe but who has the data yet to say its not six months, one year, longer? These actions protect the team who in turn protect your money.
Our team is also working very long hours protecting your capital and we have not shuttered like many other investments such as property funds, nor have we cancelled your income as listed companies cancelling their dividends left right and centre have done. Please give our team the space to do the best for you in this difficult time. I don't mind people casting insults and other poorly judged comments at me, as time will judge if I made the right decisions for you all with the benefit of hindsight, but please do not criticise the team who are also working tirelessly for you and not necessarily as thick skinned.
I can also confirm that the new lender servicing fee only applies to loans not presently in default/ recovery so no, you are not charged for those. If loans aren't paying or have no retentions then you still accrue interest and we accrue the small fee. Borrowers are not let off one penny of interest, it is still due and secured but we are recommending giving them time to manage themselves out of this to avoid certain loan losses otherwise. Borrowers have no current access to the Government backed loans' cash because they have barely announced the terms, never mind have any banks processed any material number of applications yet. The Government salary support scheme does not exist, there is no way to process a claim for that and it seems weeks away, probably next month at the earliest. Our proposed support gives them time to get that done. And our loans have property security, how would you feel if you'd lent unsecured to micro businesses with no reserves and no sales, consumers with no jobs now or self employed with no work any more? I've been through many cycles of all sorts of types and this is by far the worst and fastest that I and our team have seen.
I trust that this makes sense.
Hello all
In answer to some valid questions raised on this forum and via our support desk we are updating the FAQs and also posting a summary here.
We can confirm that:
I hope that this helps.
Following a request from shirehorse - p2pindependentforum.com/post/380064/thread
I’ve created this pinned thread to contain significant and useful information pertaining to the current liquidity situation on AC. I’ve started it off with three quotes from stuartassetzcapital , but this is not intended to be all encompassing or restricted to AC staff only. So please quote any past factually useful posts from other threads to it, and continue to use it for more important factual information about the AC access situation and leave the “chat” and discussion to the other threads.
Thanks.
www.assetzcapital.co.uk/blog/access-accounts-update
I would like to address the questions, incorrect statements and wild speculation on this thread and also thank those who see what we are seeking to achieve here with these regrettable, but necessary, actions.
We can of course confirm that we are no different to the vast majority of the companies in the world's economy, excepting perhaps food retailers and hand sanitiser companies and similar, in that we have seen income and sales lower during the lockdown and we are therefore also taking all the same measures as pretty much every other company in this country and indeed the rest of the world. Anyone that denies that this pandemic is happening, or that these actions are not absolutely necessary, when even the most cash rich of companies are having to take cost reduction measures, perhaps does not yet realise the seriousness of the situation or not yet have hospitalised relations and friends. Our actions, like pretty much every other company, include directors having salaries reduced very substantially, very substantial overhead cuts across the board, and I mean everything, meaning that we have brought down monthly costs by a huge 50%. This, combined with temporary changes to our charging structures, puts us in a sustainable position during the worst of this period over the next few months. The costs of servicing the loan book have increased substantially and we have addressed that.
In a situation that has no certain endpoint yet, nor any predictable economic recovery trajectory at present, not taking the action that we have taken would be a gross dereliction of duty in looking after our stakeholders, including you, our investors. We are not short of cash ourselves but how long does this situation continue? Three months is the initial Government timeframe but who has the data yet to say its not six months, one year, longer? These actions protect the team who in turn protect your money.
Our team is also working very long hours protecting your capital and we have not shuttered like many other investments such as property funds, nor have we cancelled your income as listed companies cancelling their dividends left right and centre have done. Please give our team the space to do the best for you in this difficult time. I don't mind people casting insults and other poorly judged comments at me, as time will judge if I made the right decisions for you all with the benefit of hindsight, but please do not criticise the team who are also working tirelessly for you and not necessarily as thick skinned.
I can also confirm that the new lender servicing fee only applies to loans not presently in default/ recovery so no, you are not charged for those. If loans aren't paying or have no retentions then you still accrue interest and we accrue the small fee. Borrowers are not let off one penny of interest, it is still due and secured but we are recommending giving them time to manage themselves out of this to avoid certain loan losses otherwise. Borrowers have no current access to the Government backed loans' cash because they have barely announced the terms, never mind have any banks processed any material number of applications yet. The Government salary support scheme does not exist, there is no way to process a claim for that and it seems weeks away, probably next month at the earliest. Our proposed support gives them time to get that done. And our loans have property security, how would you feel if you'd lent unsecured to micro businesses with no reserves and no sales, consumers with no jobs now or self employed with no work any more? I've been through many cycles of all sorts of types and this is by far the worst and fastest that I and our team have seen.
I trust that this makes sense.
In answer to some valid questions raised on this forum and via our support desk we are updating the FAQs and also posting a summary here.
We can confirm that:
- The Access Accounts are not funding new loans at this time. Any potential new loans visible in the queue to be drawn soon should not be considered to change this position. Funding of new loans would slow withdrawals and so we have stopped that activity for the time being to focus on existing borrowers and their lenders.
- Interest receipts from loans held in the Access Accounts are applied to the payment of investor interest as usual, subject to the target rate caps. We have NOT paused lender interest as some platforms have, as we carry substantial cash retentions to pay interest for some time on many loans.
- Liquidity coming into the Access Accounts from loan capital repayments of all types (partial or full loan redemptions) presently goes to fund a mix of withdrawal requests and further drawdowns that borrowers require on existing loans in your own portfolio. Ceasing to do this would cause detriment and material losses for investors and we will not do that if possible.
- Any new deposits from lenders, of which there are many hundreds of those a week at present, funds a mix of withdrawals and those further drawdowns required on existing loans, as above.
- The flat distribution of money available for withdrawal across all members in the withdrawal queue is the fairest situation whilst the Access Accounts are below a Minimum Operating Level (MOL), which we entered on the 12th March 2020. The MOL is calculated from a combination of factors, some forward looking, and it is not simply the cash balance in the Access Accounts.
- Once we are above the MOL we intend to revert to a FIFO (first in first out) queue system again, serving the oldest queue members first. If we fall below the MOL we will again revert to a flat distribution method of the same sum per withdrawal queue member.
- In the meantime, we are hoping to release a function shortly to allow people to crystallise their loan holdings and their correct share of uninvested cash out of the Access Accounts and into a new loan holding account. That is an irrevocable exit from the Access Accounts The rest of the loans will repay by monthly amortisations or end of term/ early redemptions as normal.
- As an alternative investor choice, we are exploring the possibility of an Access Accounts trading feature which would allow a choice to sell some or all of your Quick Access Account investment at a discount, subject to other investor demand at that price. This would allow you to list some or all of your Quick Access Account holdings (not individual loans) for sale to another investor. Quick Access Account holdings listed this way at a discount would likely sell faster in present market conditions than waiting for the queue, provided investor demand existed at a mutually agreeable price. This is not understood to be available on other platforms and would benefit larger investors wanting to create forced liquidity for themselves via discounts or for smaller investors having immediate need of some cash right away for Coronavirus related reasons for example.
- We are aiming to have the withdrawal queue functioning normally again as soon as possible, through new features and also through normalisation of the market in due course.
- We do not intend to raise the Lender fee from its present 0.075% pm, unlike some higher fees introduced by a number of other platforms, and instead plan to reduce this fee as soon as practical. At this time, we have no indication other than the Government approximate indication of 3 months for the approximate end of the business lock down period, meaning that the fee is at present likely to be in place for May-July inclusive.
I hope that this helps.