Assetz chief rules out purchase of FundingSecure loanbook

ASSETZ Capital’s chief executive has ruled out the possibility of buying FundingSecure’s loanbook and said that the peer-to-peer lender’s collapse should not reflect on the wider industry.

Stuart Law (pictured) said that news of FundingSecure falling into administration was “unfortunate for the investors involved” but made a distinction between “larger, well-funded platforms” and smaller, “badly-run businesses”.

“P2P lending is an expensive and detailed business to run well,” he said. “It’s also now a highly regulated market which is good for investors with larger, well-funded platforms such as ourselves but makes things very difficult for under-resourced businesses.

Read more: FundingSecure investors: What happens next?

“The smaller players are clearly struggling to keep up and the badly-run businesses are being scrutinised by the regulator. It has always been assumed that larger players like ourselves, RateSetter, Zopa and Funding Circle would buy up failing platforms but no-one needs a badly performing loanbook to add to their own books.”

Law said that the industry now has “much tighter prudential standards and regulation to live up to” and predicted that there will be more consolidation as smaller players fall by the wayside.

While Law has ruled out an acquisition of FundingSecure’s loanbook, it’s possible that the distressed assets will attract interest from elsewhere. As Peer2Peer Finance News reported earlier this year, the loanbook of another collapsed P2P lender, Lendy, attracted multiple offers.

It emerged on Wednesday morning that FundingSecure had fallen into administration, leaving thousands of investors unsure about whether they will be able to recover their funds.