Sourced Capital MD says direct authorisation was always the plan
Sourced Capital founder and managing director Stephen Moss has revealed that going directly authorised (DA) was always the platform’s plan.
It comes as Peer2Peer Finance News exclusively revealed last week that Sourced Capital had a DA application approved by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and had acquired Peer Funding.
The platform has also unveiled a new website.
Moss (pictured) said that becoming an appointed representative (AR) of Rebuildingsociety in 2018 allowed it to operate as a P2P platform but its intention was to always become DA so it could work closely with the City watchdog to improve and develop a sector it is “genuinely passionate about”.
He said that the platform used third-party software as an AR that was functional but led to “some frustrations”, as it was confined within the framework of the software provider, preventing the P2P lender from improving parts of the platform.
Moss said Sourced Capital worked with Thistle Initiatives at the end of 2020 to help review the platform’s systems and processes to prepare for becoming a DA.
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“Becoming directly authorised was always a clear goal for the business,” Moss said in a blog on Sourced Capital’s website.
“To help deliver against this ambition, we began looking at firms that could help us with the process and decided to begin working with Thistle Initiatives at the end of 2020.
“Thistle have been fantastic in helping me and the team review and revise our systems, policies and procedures, to coincide with the FCA preferences and expectations from directly authorised firms. As the months passed, we began to plan our application submission.”
Moss said during a regular catch-up call with Rebuildingsociety, he was introduced to Roger Smith, the compliance director of Peer Funding Limited.
He said their leadership team shared the same passion for P2P as Sourced Capital and their experiences complemented that of his platform.
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“Peer Funding Limited is a peer-to-peer lending platform that had stopped trading, due to the senior team having different ideas on how the business should be taken forward,” Moss said in the blog.
“Roger and the commercial director, Tony Hedger, were looking to sell their business and as we got talking, it was clear we shared the same vision. We all had a passion for the sector and their experiences complemented the team at Sourced Capital.
“It’s amazing sometimes how a simple introduction can change the course of your business and that is exactly what happened. After meeting and spending time with Roger and Tony, we proposed to purchase their company and bring them into the Sourced Capital family.”