RateSetter gains full FCA authorisation
RATESETTER has become the last of the big three peer-to-peer lenders to gain full authorisation from the City regulator.
Chief executive and founder Rhydian Lewis said that they had “learnt a lot” during the process and had made the business more transparent.
“We are proud to receive full regulatory authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority,” he said.
“We have always aspired to have a regulatory framework for our business and our industry. We strongly support effective regulation to protect customers and enable industries to compete and grow.
“Authorisation has been a long but positive journey during which we have learnt a lot, improved our infrastructure and implemented important changes, notably making the business more transparent. Transparency is vital to our business because our customers need to understand what we do to appreciate the risk of lending on RateSetter.
“Authorisation is a milestone but not an end in itself and we look forward to working with the regulator and all stakeholders to continue to deliver good customer outcomes and to grow RateSetter.”
In August, RateSetter announced that it was leaving the Peer-to-Peer Finance Association – the industry’s self-regulated trade body – after breaching its transparency rules. The platform was late to announce its purchase of a struggling company that was indebted to one of its former wholesale lending partners.
Many industry onlookers believed that the big three platforms would have been authorised on the same day. But Zopa was first to gain approval in the first half of May, with Funding Circle following later in the month.
In July, RateSetter passed the milestone of £2bn in total lending and has returned over £80m in interest to lenders. RateSetter has 250,000 active customers and was named one of the country’s fastest growing tech firms in the Tech Track 100, featured in the Sunday Times.