Unbolted opens its secondary market
Unbolted has opened its secondary market which has already witnessed transactions between investors.
The pawnbroking peer-to-peer lending platform told Peer2Peer Finance News that it is now providing lenders on its relatively longer-term watcher dealer loans an option for early exits by selling on the secondary market.
Read more: Regulator to go ahead with payment freeze rules for pawnbroking firms
The platform said that lots of lenders have enquired to buy these loans and its secondary market has had a number of transactions already.
Only working capital loans that have longer-term behavioural maturity are available on the secondary market. The loan parts can only be sold at par and a one per cent selling fee will apply.
“Demand for new loans on our secondary market currently far outstrips supply,” said Rito Haldar, co-founder of Unbolted.
“This contrasts with many other platforms that have curtailed their secondary market during the Covid-19 crisis.”
During the pandemic some P2P lending platforms have frozen their secondary markets.
Read more: Secondary market freezes could invite questions from the regulator
In March, Octopus Choice stopped all transactions, Growth Street restricted investor withdrawals, then has since exited the P2P space, and JustUs also suspended its secondary market, claiming it was awaiting clarity on the coronavirus business interruption loan scheme.
Last month JustUs announced it plans to reopen its secondary market in July if there are no new lockdown restrictions.
In April Funding Circle suspended its secondary market and Lending Works paused all lending activities for at least 90 days. This included freezing its secondary loans market.
Then at the start of July Lending Works extended its normalisation period for another 90 days.
Other platforms have undergone changes to their secondary markets.
LanlordInvest added a discount option and Zopa made changes so that investors can sell loans progressively, rather than waiting until they reach the front of the queue.
