Is all plain sailing among Lendy leadership?
MYSTERY surrounds the current make-up of Lendy’s senior leadership team.
Several individuals appointed last year to great fanfare now appear to have quietly left the peer-to-peer property lending platform, which has been battling a slew of bad publicity over mounting defaults.
The Cowes Week sailing regatta sponsor appointed Robert Kelly as its first-ever chief operating officer in May 2018 and Terry Pritchard as head of originations in the following July.
But Kelly has left out his time at Lendy on his profile on business networking site LinkedIn, while Pritchard left the platform just two months after his appointment.
Commenting on Kelly’s appointment last year, Lendy said he brought over 25 years of senior level experience in operations management of financial services platforms.
All Kelly’s previous roles all feature on his LinkedIn profile, but there is no sign of his Lendy position in his career history on the social network.
Meanwhile, at the time of Pritchard’s appointment, Lendy said his 30-year track record would help him at a key period of growth for the company, but by September he had joined rival Kuflink.
His Lendy role was brushed off as a consultancy position.
Another appointment that the lender made a big shout about last July was Michael Perry as business development manager, but his LinkedIn profile suggests this role finished in November 2018.
Peer2Peer Finance News has contacted Lendy for comment.
Lendy has been rather quiet lately, but a customer update last December said that the platform has been focusing on improving its governance, financial controls, liquidity, collections and compliance, amid concerns about high levels of arrears.
Furthermore, a borrower has threatened to sue both the platform and its investors for £10m, claiming Lendy unfairly put £8.2m worth of loans into default.
The claim – which was triggered by Lendy beginning recovery proceedings against the borrower – has been described by the platform as “vexatious” and with “little prospect of victory.”
The Financial Times has also reported that the Financial Conduct Authority has put the platform on a watchlist after becoming concerned about its ability to meet the minimum standard of regulated firms.