You’re a borrower? They’re talking to you… John Authers argues in the Financial Times (subscription required) that the long-lasting victim of the banking crisis of 2008 could be the banks themselves: “At a retail level, there is the growth in “crowdfunding” or peer-to-peer services. “Spurred by public distrust for conventional banks, and aided by ever stronger […]
Online crowdfunding deal should get more, much-needed money to SMEs Columnist Anthony Hilton argues in the Evening Standard that a new deal between Santander and Funding Circle, an internet-based crowdfunding platform, has the potential to revolutionise lending to small and medium-sized companies in the UK. Hilton says that, although banks exist to lend to small business, they […]
New move can only help Money&Co. welcomes the Peer2Peer Finance Association’s (P2PFA) new initiative, whereby all crowdfunding platforms must report their bad debts and defaults in a consistent and comparable style. The guiding principle is “to help consumers compare between platforms and strengthen standards of industry disclosure”, according to a P2PFA statement. As one […]
Banks will do mortgages, but are reluctant to support small business Vince Cable, the UK government’s business secretary, is the latest senior political and business figure to criticise UK bank lending practice. The Guardian reports Cable’s recent remarks to a business audience: “Banks pump out lending in the mortgage market, while lending to small businesses […]
Money&Co. CEO Nicola Horlick recently went to Cambridge, where she organised a dinner for leading academics and crowdfunding practitioners. Users will be reading more about and from them later on this site. Local newspaper business editor, Jenny Chapman, came to discuss the exciting developments in crowdfunding with Nicola the next day. Here’s a snippet from […]
We couldn’t have put it better ourselves. “Everyone agrees that there is a lending problem for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK,” writes Andrew Haldane, chief economist of the Bank of England, in The Telegraph. “The stock of lending to UK SMEs has been falling for at least four years and the stock […]
Interesting times for alternative finance. After the recently reported failure of YES-secure, The Observer reports that “the phenomenon of crowdfunding is booming. You can stake from just £10 to emulate the likes of Duncan Bannatyne by becoming a “mini-dragon”, backing an ever-expanding range of ventures from theatre productions to electronic gizmos.” The same article goes […]
The recently announced failure of a crowdfunding site, YES-secure, offers food for thought for all connected with the industry – individual lenders and investors, borrower businesses, regulators, and the crowdfunding platforms. The early indications are that lenders will not lose their money as a result of the YES-secure platform failure. Some might say this is […]
Make sure their houses are in order A crowdfunding platform has failed – providing a lesson for would-be investors, crowdfund platofrms, regulators, and all in the industry. The first, and most obvious point is the simplest: just because a platform calls it self “secure’, that may not really be the case. “YES-secure is the most […]
Equity crowdfunding volume is growing and growing The flip side of the crowdfunding coin from loan funding – the kind that Money&Co. does, always taking a charge on borrower assets – is equity funding. When money is committed to equity funding, there’s quite often no income in the early stages (or at all), but the […]