Peer to Peer lender Assetz Capital pauses withdrawals going into panic mode - Dispatch Weekly

Peer to peer platform Assetz Capital has taken the drastic measure of pausing withdrawals. Negative comments and upset customers are now starting complaining and Assetz Capital is trying to silence them on trust pilot.

source: https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/assetzcapital.co.uk

Dawn a representative of Assetz Capital is stating: Please be advised that until yesterday evening, we have conducted business in Assetz under Normal Market Conditions. Due to the Coronavirus, we have now entered a period of time that is NOT Normal Market Conditions.

This means for the 38,195 consumers that have invested £1bn on to the platform have their withdrawing on the Access accounts paused whilst the Assetz Capital Board decide how to best react to the demand of withdrawals coming through at present.

Dawn states that Assetz Capital is aiming to have an update shortly over the coming days. So far investors have received no official email from the Board.

Assetz Capital board of directors:

• Stuart Law, CEO and Co-Founder
• Chris Mellish, CTO and Co-Founder
• David Penston, Head of Property Lending and Co-Founder
• Mark Wardrop, Chief Operations and Finance Officer
• Andrew Sheppard, Chief Regulatory, Compliance and Audit Officer
• Chris Macklin, Chief Risk Officer

According to Assetz Capital, ‘Normal market conditions‘ are met when economic conditions are reasonably stable. Our Access Accounts also hold a certain amount of cash “liquid” to help increase the liquidity of withdrawal requests above and beyond normal market supply and demand.

On the other hand, Funding Circle the UK leading peer to peer lender states: “we regularly stress-test our loan book to simulate what could happen to investor returns if the economy was to enter a downturn. In the Bank of England’s most severe scenario—which would see losses almost double (similar to the 2008 recession)—we predict that returns would still be positive overall.” Funding Circle hasn’t gone into panic mode and still allows customer to withdrawing their funds.

RateSetter another player in the peer to peer lending market is stating: “We have seen volatility in shares and interest rates cut – our response is that RateSetter is uncorrelated to the stock market and we have kept our investor rates unchanged, allowing you to avoid volatility and keep your money moving forward. Our response in these times is keeping access open with the minimum delay and managing our Provision Fund and credit performance, as we have done for nearly 10 years. We have reduced lending to prioritise access.

** 20th March Update ** Assetz Capital CEO Stuart Law has made the decision to temporarily pause the ‘Invest Idle Funds’ function at this time. Whilst withdrawals from the Access Accounts have resumed and moved to a queuing system, Stuart Law feels that temporarily pausing this function will simplify our lenders’ experience whilst we are no longer in normal market conditions.

Do you think Stuart Law CEO and Co-Founder of Assetz Capital had the right to pause withdrawals holding on his customer’s cash without any justification?