Lending Works narrowed losses last year ahead of P2P exit
Lending Works narrowed its losses in its last full year before announcing the closure of its retail peer-to-peer lending business.
The consumer lender reported a loss of £1,279,653 for the 12 months to 31 December 2020, down from a £1,875,641 loss in 2019 and a £2,119,524 loss in 2018.
The latest annual accounts, filed with Companies House, bring Lending Works’ total losses since inception to £10,506,295.
The company’s number of employees dropped from 42 to 34 over the year.
The annual accounts also showed that Lending Works’ parent company made four equity investments into the platform over the year, totalling £4.75m.
“Further funding will be made available as required to ensure that the company remains financially resilient and sustainable for the long-term and to support the continued growth of the business over time,” the document said.
Earlier this month, Lending Works announced that it had placed its P2P lending business into run-off, citing changing market dynamics, Covid-19 and waning retail interest.
“The dynamics of the P2P market have changed markedly in recent years, with retail investor participation steadily waning,” said Nick Harding (pictured), co-founder and chief executive of Lending Works, at the time of the announcement.
“This has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, to the extent that we no longer feel it is large enough to support a mainstream lender such as Lending Works. We now need to utilise alternative funding sources to ensure that we can provide our loan customers with the service they need.”
Lending Works was acquired by alternative fund manager Intriva Capital in 2020, with the transaction completing on 15 December that year.
The platform has faced some challenges in recent years. In March 2020, the platform paused new lending in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In October 2020, it introduced negative interest rates for investors so that it could channel more money into its provision fund to mitigate anticipated higher credit losses.