“Local Business Lending Partnership” Gets Hijacked
Lancashire and Funding Circle have called their partnership a Local Business Lending Partnership.
But type that into Google, even with quotes and you get adverts for Wonga and Lloyds TSB.
Click here to see what you get!
Not what you’re looking for at all!
Lancashire And Funding Circle
Lancashire County Council and Funding Circle have got together to form what they call a Local Business Lending Partnership to lend money to small and medium-sized businesses.
it is reported in The Times today and the story has featured on the BBC this morning.
On the face of it, this seems to be a good idea, but why does the council need to get involved?
ING Pulls Out
I heard this story from a friend, who used to broke deals for the Dutch bank.
The effect is summed up in this paragraph from the article.
Last year, the leasing business provided £22bn to help keep British industry running – many of the deals being done direct between banks and large companies. On that measure, ING Lease accounted for 5% of the market.
However, it specialised in the smaller end of the business – farms and young firms that got in touch via specialist brokers.
It is these customers, wanting essentials such as tractor attachments, computers, desks and commercial vehicles, which will bear the brunt of the loss.
It left lots of my friend’s clients without finance, as he deals very much at the smaller end. Last time, I spoke to him, he was thinking of retiring, so leaving his clients further up the river without a paddle.
I think, it shows that we need to get alternative methods of finance in place. This is Funding Circle territory, but at the moment they are not big enough to replace much of ING’s portfolio.
It also illustrates a rule of my friend, David. Never bank with a bank head-quartered outside of the UK.
Did Betfair Lay Down The Model For Social Lenders?
Zopa, Funding Circle and Ratesetter, think they are unique, but did they just borrow the principle from the betting exchange, Betfair.
In all four, you can play both sides against each other, although the purpose of Betfair is different.
The same principles could also be applied to an energy exchange. Let’s say a town or an area got together and pooled their energy needs and say they wanted a particular price, which the energy suppliers could then bid for.
I don’t see too much difference.
Creating A Funding Circle Account
I have just created a Funding Circle account, as I want to see how other peer-to-peer lending sites work.
As a Zopa user for many years, I could be considered biased, but although I got registered quickly, there are some things I liked and didn’t.
E-Mail Address Based Account
All accounts, should be based on e-mail addresses. They are in Funding Circle.
Passwords
Because of my gammy left hand, I don’t like passwords where case is important, as I often get it wrong, when I use the shift key. Funding Circle insists on at least one Capital letter and one number.
At least though they didn’t use the dreaded Captcha system beloved of so many sites.
Check Questions
They did have, who was my best friend at school as a check question. This is a question, that I don’t really have an answer to, because I had a bad time at school with personal relationships.
Addresses
Because I’ve only been at my current address for less than two years, I was asked to enter my previous address. I made a mistake and ended up with the wrong address in my profile. I was able to change it easily to the correct one.
Debit Cards
The first investment was by debit card, which brought up the dreaded Verified-by-Visa system. I would prefer to use a Direct Debit or a Bank Transfer. Especially as fake Verified-by-Visa e-mails are being used by fraudsters.
But I did successfully register my account and transfer £1,000 into the account.
The Anonymous Widower 