Betfair co-founder steps down from Funding Circle’s UK board
Betfair co-founder Edward Wray has stepped down as a non-executive director of Funding Circle’s UK board after more than eight years, although he maintains his seat on the group’s board.
Wray, who co-founded Betfair in 1999 with Andrew Black, joined as a director of Funding Circle in August 2011, about a year after the launch of the platform.
Funding Circle told Peer2Peer Finance News that Wray has been on both the group board for the plc (Funding Circle Holdings) and the UK board (Funding Circle Limited) for a while now and is just stepping down from the UK board due to capacity.
The platform said he remains a member of, and fully engaged with, the group board.
Wray’s departure from Funding Circle’s UK board was announced in a document filed with Companies House.
Wray was chief executive of Betfair until 2003, when he moved to Australia to set up the company’s joint venture and then in 2006 became chairman.
Prior to setting up Betfair, Wray spent eight years at JP Morgan & Co as a vice president for debt capital markets and derivatives.
Wray also serves as a director of a number of companies in the UK including Prodigy Finance, Prodigy Investments and The London House Exchange as well as serving as chairman of Coach Core Foundation and Mental Health Innovations.
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In a separate trading update, Funding Circle said it started the financial year well with the business seeing strong levels of demand from borrowers in both the UK and US through to mid-March, however, the second half of March and April to-date have been impacted by Covid-19.
This was a result of the decision to proactively tighten credit whilst working to become accredited to both the coronavirus business interruption loan scheme and the US’s Payment Protection Programme, and in order to allow it to better assess changing risk dynamics.
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Funding Circle said that the group has a strong financial base and robust balance sheet. At 31 December 2019, the group had net assets of £319m, including cash of £164.5m.
Given the increased uncertainty in the market, the firm has withdrawn financial guidance for 2020 until the outlook becomes clearer.