Funding Circle response to “Returns on my investment have been……”

Hi Tim

Thank you for leaving a review.

We have a very experienced Credit Assessment team, as well as stringent statistical models to assess businesses we lend to. We closely monitor macro-economic factors, the performance of our current loan book, trends of late payments and defaults, and we regularly update our credit model. We employ an in-house Collections and Recoveries team who are committed to recovering as much money as possible from all defaulted loans, to minimize the impact of defaults on investors.

It is important to note that defaults do not occur evenly over the course of a loan term, with businesses being more likely to default at certain points in the loan cycle. Typically, returns are highest during the first six months of lending; dipping over the next eighteen months as some businesses are unable to repay, then stabilising and increasing as recoveries start to come in.

While it’s impossible to predict exactly how the economy will perform in this fast-moving situation, a key pillar of our risk management function has always been to build a resilient loanbook that is well-positioned to withstand an economic downturn.

We are continuing to monitor the environment closely. While we expect to deliver resilient returns the current situation presents a number of unknowns. As we can’t reflect how these unknowns may impact the businesses you lend when they are sold on the secondary market, we consider it prudent to pause sales.

This will allow us to protect returns while we continue to evaluate COVID-19’s impact on the economy. However, you are still able to withdraw your monthly repayments made by the businesses you’ve lent to. If you would like to talk to our investor support team about any of the points you have raised please give us a call on 0800 048 2467 or send an email to contactus@fundingcircle.com.

Thank you again.

The Funding Circle team.