Confidence is key

Investor confidence essentially boils down to the attractiveness of an investment opportunity when judging perceived risks against returns. In the current market, its something that's front and centre in people's minds. Risk has to be managed, and margins of safety when protecting risk capital become very apparent when the waters are a bit choppy.

In the past, we have spoken about the robustness of the housing market and why that's a massive driver for investors looking to engage with the P2P asset class, but once you have decided to include P2P lending in your balanced portfolio, how do you decide which platform is right for you? Furthermore, what metrics do you look at to make that decision? Of course, every investor makes a choice thats right for them based on their risk appetites, but one of the critical considerations is, what is my margin of safety, and how will my investment be managed?

4th Way, the peer-to-peer lending research and ratings firm, recently announced that they had boosted their overall risk rating for Invest & Fund, stating that we have achieved an "excellent margin of safety" for our investors, even during the recent years of financial uncertainty, and that was reflected our rating being raised to the highest awarded. The commentary provided mentioned that this was down to our  "increasing maturity and lengthening perfect record".

When we receive feedback like this from a well-respected independent industry voice, we hope that it illustrates one of the core parts of our business that only sometimes gets the attention it deserves. Success in the lending industry is usually judged on outgoing loan transactions and rarely on the performance of loans. Yet, even though both are important, performance and risk management are the most critical metrics, over and above almost everything else.

The commentary alludes to the difficult times we have all had over the last few years and how post the pandemic industry slowdown, we managed to come out of that with all facilities performing and nothing running past its term.

"No other bridging and development P2P lending companies performed better than Invest & Fund on loans outstanding during the pandemic years. In addition, invest & Fund kept its loan resale market open and functioning normally throughout all Covid-19 lockdowns".

It also mentions that we launched with Homes England during the pandemic and took a huge step forward when many were tactically stepping back.

So, how was this achieved?

The dilution of some of the risk factors through the number of schemes we fund plays a part, coupled with the first-class credit management and structuring skills of our core team and their ability to step in and foresee the issues. However, a large amount comes down to the clients we choose to fund. We have an exceptionally high-quality threshold in what we present to our lenders because our route to growth isn't based on fast numbers; it's not based on carrying a percentage of bad debt through uncontrolled expansion; it's centred around diligence, repeat clients, and the marriage of a fintech business with the high standards of legacy bank lending.

Our performance inspires confidence, which underpins the market and allows us to continue to service our clients and investors to the standards they expect from Invest & Fund.

Invest & Fund has returned over £120 million of capital and interest to lenders with zero losses, showing the rigour that governs our business. To take maximum advantage of this robust and exciting asset class, please visit www.investandfund.com  or contact Shaheel at shaheel@investandfund.com.

Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose money. This is a high-risk investment. You may not be able to access your money easily and are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong. Take 2mins to learn more.