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Post by eascogo on Jul 11, 2016 21:03:47 GMT
Just posting honest results here After almost 2 weeks, got less than 10% of my initial deposit allocated into loans in first few days, nothing further allocated in a week. Seems like the demand is much higher than the supply. Disappointing so far. Ditto, just to add insult to injury, I've made 17p, and I'm due to pay 11p in fees, a week ago it was even worse, fees exactly matched returns (can't remember exact numbers but it was pennies obviously) Brian I can report a similar experience with cash drag reducing initial return to the extent that one can describe as pitiful. The case in point is at day 35 of account opening with 3k. 42% of this is still uninvested. Net return is just a few pennies above £8. Although the header "Your current return" shows 8.22% I understand this to indicate mean projected return of all parts invested thus far. BM will correct me if I am wrong. Neither lag -- small chunks invested bit by bit to achieve a healthy spread -- nor uninvested portion are factored in. Understandably investors attracted by the headlined rate of 7%+ will get a shock with such a slow moving process. However if BM succeed in reducing lag as they said they will, things should begin to look a lot better.
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Post by Financial Thing on Jul 11, 2016 21:35:02 GMT
Just posting honest results here After almost 2 weeks, got less than 10% of my initial deposit allocated into loans in first few days, nothing further allocated in a week. Seems like the demand is much higher than the supply. Disappointing so far. Dare I ask, how much you invested? £1k
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Post by stevefindlay on Jul 12, 2016 7:10:52 GMT
We are disappointed. We are disappointed that we've not been able to allocate your new loans as quickly as we hoped, or as quickly as normal. Please accept our apologies. Sorry. What has happenedSince the Brexit vote (and we hate using that as a reason) two key things have happened: (1) We've seen a significant growth in the number of new investors coming to BondMason; and (2) We've tightened some of our lending criteria - i.e. max 65% LTV for property-backed lending (75% LTV when compared to 90 day sale value) What this meansWe've spread fewer new loans across more new investors; which has impacted the allocation rate and cash drag. Put simply, recent investors are being allocated at c.10% per week as opposed to 25%-40% per week; which simply isn't good enough. This impacts any new investors since c. mid June (as our allocation algorithm cycles through all under-invested investors fairly). What we are doing to fix it(1) New platforms: We are bringing on 3 new platforms (2 of which aren't actually P2P platforms; but are specialist lenders that we've established a relationship with). The first is making their loan book available to us this week (c.10-20 new loans should come from this). The other 2 will take another 2-4 weeks, but should be able to offer very good loan volumes, and good risk-adjusted investment opportunities. We will continue to expand our platform (loan provider) relationships in this way. (2) Release of improved loan allocation algorithm: This will enable our largest investors (who are 100% invested) to diversify further when new loans come in, and swap out smaller portions of existing loan positions to new investors. This is a win-win situation. Existing investors get more diversified; new investors have less cash drag. This is being worked on and tested. The full release should occur this month. (3) Investment in our investment team: we are delighted with the client feedback and growth so far this year. We appointed 4 new members to the team over the last month, including a dedicated Chief Investment Officer who started 3 weeks ago (and we've known personally for about 10 years). Updates to follow on our team page ( About Us) in the coming week or so. Please note, we are not proposing to loosen our investment criteria to approve more new loans and solve cash drag. This is isn't the appropriate response. What happens nextThis hurts us and we are working hard to solve it: we are working hard to build our reputation, so client experience is our #1 priority. Minimising Cash Drag is the biggest issue we are facing right now. We are aligned: we only charge fees on invested capital, so we don't earn anything on uninvested cash. It is in our interests to minimise your cash drag. We monitor your return as a ratio of our fee income - we aim for this to be at least 8:1 for all clients (which means you are getting a minimum gross 8% return vs. our 1% fee). Because daily rounding to the nearest 1p may impact the smallest investors (£1,000-2,000) who are not fully invested, we will monitor the situation more closely during July, and may waive / refund portions of our fee if rounding has created any undesirable outcomes. We are available: we pride ourselves on customer service. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact a member of the team using our central email (invest@bondmason.com) or number (020 3126 6705) and we will aim to answer your call immediately and/or respond within 24-48 hours. Most likely, I will respond personally as this is a very important issue for us. Once again, please accept our sincere apologies. We are very grateful for the candid feedback from this forum, and I hope to reassure you that your comments are important to us, and we are on top of this issue. [FYI - eascogo Financial Thing brianac fp ]
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Greenwood2
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Post by Greenwood2 on Jul 12, 2016 8:43:02 GMT
Just posting honest results here After almost 2 weeks, got less than 10% of my initial deposit allocated into loans in first few days, nothing further allocated in a week. Seems like the demand is much higher than the supply. Disappointing so far. Ditto, just to add insult to injury, I've made 17p, and I'm due to pay 11p in fees, a week ago it was even worse, fees exactly matched returns (can't remember exact numbers but it was pennies obviously) Brian Fees seem to be overestimated initially and then corrected downwards, (when actually applied?) not sure why. Lending was much faster before Brexit (Edit: My thousand went in less than 10 days). Seems BM are taking steps.
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Greenwood2
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Post by Greenwood2 on Jul 12, 2016 19:26:12 GMT
A few loans in today.
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jonah
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Post by jonah on Jul 12, 2016 19:44:58 GMT
2x none p2p new platforms... I hadn't picked up that you used none p2p before, can you clarify?
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Post by stevefindlay on Jul 12, 2016 22:40:53 GMT
2x none p2p new platforms... I hadn't picked up that you used none p2p before, can you clarify? jonah Sure - we are establishing relationships with lenders that don't operate as P2P platforms, but are willing to make loans available to BondMason clients. In some cases exclusively so. These are the first 2 we are looking to work with, but we need to finalise the legal documentation, and without disclosing exactly who they are at this point: (1) A private bank with 40+ years experience of specialist asset-backed lending and loan sizes of £100k-300k; and (2) A newer property (commercial and residential) lending company that only allows institutions and large family offices to invest in their loans. We are pleased with these first two relationships, as we feel it is another demonstration of how we can deliver value to our clients. We are able to build these relationships as our team has institutional investing and credit investing backgrounds, and in many cases we know the people involved already. It may be worth noting, that the "non" P2P platforms go through the same diligence review as the P2P platforms.
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Post by bluechip on Jul 12, 2016 23:06:34 GMT
All sounds good to me (just joined), I'm up for as much diversification as possible. Thanks for the info guys.
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Post by henders on Jul 13, 2016 9:46:04 GMT
Also quite like the look of this. Concerned about length of time to get money lent but was indicated it may take a month to lend out £10K, in the grand scheme of things can live with this. I am in the process of cashing in my Assetz loans and will move to BM (still with Z and RS); I like the diversification, like the website, like the communication on here and (quite) like 7% with quick access.
Am I missing something?
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fp
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Post by fp on Jul 13, 2016 10:54:12 GMT
I think the trick is to put in £1000 initially and then trickle money in from then onwards.
My initial £1000 picked up a few loans yesterday, i'll keep an eye on it over the next week or so and see how it goes, the intention is for my better half to trickle a few quid in it each month before she invests it in her wardrobe. Depending on returns, I may transfer some of my FC money into it too, something i'm hoping to do.
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pauls
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Post by pauls on Jul 13, 2016 11:44:46 GMT
2x none p2p new platforms... I hadn't picked up that you used none p2p before, can you clarify? jonah Sure - we are establishing relationships with lenders that don't operate as P2P platforms, but are willing to make loans available to BondMason clients. In some cases exclusively so. These are the first 2 we are looking to work with, but we need to finalise the legal documentation, and without disclosing exactly who they are at this point: (1) A private bank with 40+ years experience of specialist asset-backed lending and loan sizes of £100k-300k; and (2) A newer property (commercial and residential) lending company that only allows institutions and large family offices to invest in their loans. We are pleased with these first two relationships, as we feel it is another demonstration of how we can deliver value to our clients. We are able to build these relationships as our team has institutional investing and credit investing backgrounds, and in many cases we know the people involved already. It may be worth noting, that the "non" P2P platforms go through the same diligence review as the P2P platforms. I too am living the diversification and the concept of new "non p2p platforms" Can you give us an idea of the sorts of rates that might be obtained?
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Post by stevefindlay on Jul 13, 2016 12:04:28 GMT
Also quite like the look of this. Concerned about length of time to get money lent but was indicated it may take a month to lend out £10K, in the grand scheme of things can live with this. I am in the process of cashing in my Assetz loans and will move to BM (still with Z and RS); I like the diversification, like the website, like the communication on here and (quite) like 7% with quick access. Am I missing something? henders "Am I missing something?" - I hope not! We do charge a 1% fee, so there's that. But otherwise, we are fully aligned to enabling our clients to get a good, consistent return and (hopefully) a great customer experience. Thank you for trying us out.
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Post by stevefindlay on Jul 13, 2016 12:08:32 GMT
jonah Sure - we are establishing relationships with lenders that don't operate as P2P platforms... I too am living the diversification and the concept of new "non p2p platforms" Can you give us an idea of the sorts of rates that might be obtained? pauls To be honest the rates should be consistent with what we currently invest in: 6-12%. What we like about these other providers is that they often have niche go-to-market strategies, so they are originating good risk-adjusted opportunities with sound credit processes in a market they know very well. I.e. we are not working with them for higher returns, rather, a better spread of solid investments.
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Post by Financial Thing on Jul 13, 2016 12:58:39 GMT
What we are doing to fix it(1) New platforms: We are bringing on 3 new platforms ( 2 of which aren't actually P2P platforms; but are specialist lenders that we've established a relationship with). I am more than a little concerned to read this. Could you please explain what types of non p2p products you are placing BM's clients into? Are you lending our money to cousin Alfie down the pub (hopefully not)? I can appreciate you taking measures to meet BM's demand but this decision veers away from why I invest in a p2p platform. It makes me uneasy to hear as a p2p company, you are drifting away from your investment business model and I think it's reasonable for lenders to know where you are allocating their funds.
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Post by stevefindlay on Jul 13, 2016 15:42:44 GMT
What we are doing to fix it(1) New platforms: We are bringing on 3 new platforms ( 2 of which aren't actually P2P platforms; but are specialist lenders that we've established a relationship with). I am more than a little concerned to read this. Could you please explain what types of non p2p products you are placing BM's clients into? Are you lending our money to cousin Alfie down the pub (hopefully not)? I can appreciate you taking measures to meet BM's demand but this decision veers away from why I invest in a p2p platform. It makes me uneasy to hear as a p2p company, you are drifting away from your investment business model and I think it's reasonable for lenders to know where you are allocating their funds. Financial Thing To respond: (and please see my comments to Jonah above) "Could you please explain what types of non p2p products you are placing BM's clients into?" Asset-backed and property-backed loans in the first two instances. "Are you lending our money to cousin Alfie down the pub (hopefully not)?" No - and I'm actually a little offended by that comment (I'll assume it was intended as a joke). But to keep the tone light - Alfie down the pub wouldn't pass our due diligence process. Both of our non-P2P Platforms are experienced lenders / investors - specifically, one is regulated for, inter alia, "Entering into regulated credit agreement as Lender" and "Exercising/having right to exercise lender's rights and duties under a regulated credit agreement" (i.e. the traditional forms of lending permissions, before P2P came about). The other company acts very much as a Principle in its loans - i.e. the Directors personally invest a significant amount into every loan, and keep hold of that position until full repayment (we really like strong alignment). If it helps: we wouldn't approve Equity Crowdfunding platforms that do Bonds. Or mini-bonds. Etc. Equity risk at debt returns. Not good. You can't turn bad credit into good credit by charging higher interest rates. Our approach is conservative, which is why 7.0% is the target; not 10%+. Many clients use BondMason as part of a cash-management strategy / pension strategy / savings strategy. We are conscious of this in our investment approach. "I can appreciate you taking measures to meet BM's demand but this decision veers away from why I invest in a p2p platform" Its always been our strategy to work with any lender which can demonstrate good risk-adjusted loan opportunities, understands credit, and has a focus for smaller loan sizes (sub £5m). We are not concentrated on P2P Platforms only. We are very pleased to be the first / only platform doing this. "you are drifting away from your investment business model" I'd politely disagree. Please see above. "I think it's reasonable for lenders to know where you are allocating their funds" We do this.
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