Blend Network gains approval for FCA direct authorisation
Blend Network has been approved for direct authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
The peer-to-peer property lending platform, which launched in 2018 and targets returns of between eight and 12 per cent per annum, said it will look to expand its retail and institutional investor base.
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“We are thrilled to have been granted full direct authorisation by the FCA,” said Yann Murciano, chief executive at Blend Network.
“The approval process required the FCA to conduct an extremely exhaustive and thorough due diligence on Blend Network and it required Blend Network to disclose extensive information.
“We believe this authorisation will help us consolidate ourselves as one of the leading P2P property lending platforms in the market and further enhance investor trust in our business.”
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“We worked extremely hard to achieve full FCA direct authorisation and this is an enormous success for us, especially considering that only a handful of platforms have got approved over the past couple of years – a lot more used to get approved each year prior to 2019,” said Roxana Mohammadian-Molina, chief strategy officer at Blend Network.
“Moreover, this enormous success comes at a time where Blend Network is in full growth mode and has been hitting multiple landmarks. This helps generate trust in what we are building at Blend Network.”
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Yesterday, Blend Network updated its product prices with its bridging loans now starting from 0.7 per cent per month and refurbishment and development loans from 0.75 per cent per month.
The platform funded the first tranche of a £2.6m lending facility within just six minutes on 23 March and it is now on track to more than double its lending in 2021 after increasing its lending by 104 per cent compared to the previous year.