EasyMoney passes £150m lending milestone
EasyMoney has loaned £150m to property professionals over the past four years, in the latest milestone for the peer-to-peer lending business.
The platform now hopes to pass the £200m lending milestone by the end of 2022.
To date, the lender has seen no defaults and its investors have never lost a penny. EasyMoney’s head of lending, Jason Ferrando, says that this track record is a testament to the platform’s ability to source great borrowers.
“I was taught that it’s only a good deal if it’s a good deal for everybody involved,” he says.
“So it has to be a good deal for us, for the borrower and a good deal for the investor.”
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Ferrando says that EasyMoney’s investors have never lost any money on a loan, and he is proud of his team’s ability to conduct excellent due diligence while delivering returns of up to eight per cent.
“I think we’ve built a wonderful business,” he adds.
“P2P is such a wonderful thing. For first time ever in history, the average person can access the same returns that the ultra wealthy have been making for years.
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When choosing a new borrower, Ferrando reveals that his team follows a few unbreakable rules.
“We only lend to property professionals,” he says. “We don’t lend to get people out of trouble or to do debt consolidation.
“We want to see a firm project in place, we want the borrower to have a really good reason why they want the money, and we need to make sure that the exit route is good.
“The exit route is always a sale or refinancing.”
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EasyMoney’s success has been all the more impressive considering the number of P2P lending platforms which have paused or stopped retail lending, citing the uncertainty of the Covid-19 pandemic.
EasyMoney has remained open to retail investors, and offers a range of competitive interest rates for investors, depending on the amount of money that they invest.
Ferrando credits his underwriting team for the platform’s steady growth during the past few years.
“Success in P2P is all about how good your underwriter is,” he says.
“We will never do a bad loan. We’re not going to rush anything through. We’re not cutting a single corner. And that is why we don’t lose money. We’re going to be here and we’re going to carry on being here because we’re careful.”
Five years ago, when he was still building the EasyMoney business, Ferrando told his co-directors that EasyMoney intends to be the last man standing in the P2P space. Since then, the platform has reached profitability, attracted countless new investors, and surpassed its £150m lending milestone.
EasyMoney recently launched a new app in response to investor demand, and Ferrando hints that there are more big announcements on the horizon.
“I think P2P is such a great story with so much potential,” he adds. “We have built up a great business and we are here for the long term.”