Assetz Capital confirmed five-star lender with ThinCats
ASSETZ Capital snapped up a five-star rating from independent financial researcher Defaqto for the second consecutive year, helped by its transparency and ethical investment scores.
The peer-to-peer platform, which specialises in secured lending to small- and medium-sized businesses, now shares the top ‘loan-based crowdfunding’ ranking only with one other player – ThinCats – after LandBay moved down to the four-star slot.
“In particular Assetz Capital scored well on our core criteria of ‘transparency in website disclosures’ and the criteria of ‘ethical investment’, under which their green energy projects stood out,” said Defaqto’s chief executive Zahid Bilgrami.
Since winning the five-star ranking for the first time last year, Assetz has seen a substantial increase in demand from high-quality secured borrowers, said chief executive Stuart Law (pictured).
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“Since gaining the Defaqto five star rating last year, our business has continued to go from strength to strength by attracting investors which are buying into our secured lending model,” said Law.
“Funding applications from creditworthy businesses from around the UK have also significantly increased during this period.
“With our secured lending model, every loan is backed with property, and/or other realisable security in order to reduce the risk of loss for investors.
“The five star rating comes from a widely recognised, proven, successful and independently verified platform.”
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Defaqto assesses and monitors about 41,000 products and 4.1 million product features daily, based on which it then reviews providers in each category to re-assess their rating every February.
“Our rating gives an indication of the quality and comprehensiveness of the features and benefits of a platform, ensuring that investors make informed decisions based on fact, not opinion,” said Bilgrami.
“Our experts analyse over 30 of the most important features to crowdfunding investors, and then set benchmarks for a 1-5 scoring system for each of them. Usually the more comprehensive a platform is, the more points it will score.”
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