Author Archives: Martin Baker

Crowdfunding Comparisons: On Risks, Rewards – And Fruit Salads

We often talk about how the young industry of crowdfunding is trying to find stability, certainty and identity. Even the names describing what we do are unstable (for the record, at Money&Co. we are a peer-to-peer [P2P] business lender, lending to small and medium-sized enterprises [SMEs]). See our opinion a while back: “What’s in a name?” […]

Equity, Debt – And Crowd’s Latest Move To Mainstream

Congratulations to SyndicateRoom, our friends on the equity side of the crowdfunding fence. SyndicateRoom claims to be “the first crowdfunding platform to join the public markets”, and is now has intermediary status with the London Stock Exchange. Here’s part of the announcement, run in full on the alternative-finance intelligence platform, Bob’s Guide. “SyndicateRoom becomes the […]

Fast-Growing UK FinTech Model ‘To Be Adopted By Europe’

Research recently published shows global investment in financial technology (FinTech) companies totalled $19.1 billion (£13.4 billion) in 2015, and is cited in an article by Anthony Hilton in The Evening Standard. Peer-to-peer (P2P) lending is at the heart of FinTech in the UK – and is arguably the fastest-growing sub-sector in the fast-growing country. As […]

‘Exciting Times For P2P Investors’ – Daily Reckoning on IFISAs

We regularly cover the slowly increasing (and increasingly pleasing) awareness of alternative finance, which includes crowdfunding and our own sub-sector of crowdfunding, peer-to-peer (P2P) business lending. P2P is set to come to prominence this year as the Innovative Finance Individual Savings Account (IFISA) comes into the savings market with a vengeance. We have expressed our […]

IFISAs: What Are They And When Will They Be Here?

“So what the heck is an Innovative Finance Individual Savings Account (IFISA)?” asks Oliver Smith in The Memo. He proceeds to answer his own question: “Essentially it’s a more tax-efficient way of investing your hard-earned cash with “alternative” investments. “Peer-to-peer lending, where anyone can put up cash for borrowers and receive interest on loans made, has […]

IFISA Take-Up ‘Could Be 2 Million Accounts’

The Innovative Finance Individual Savings Account (IFISA) is coming in April. IFISAs will allow peer-to-peer (P2P) lenders like Money&Co. to offer our loans via this attractive tax-free medium. There’s a little more detail on this in the short extract from the Go Compare financial article below. The key question, procedural and regulatory issues aside, is […]