As the coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak affects all our lives, we want to assure our valued community of borrowers and lenders that we’re doing everything we can support you all at this difficult time.
We wanted to give you an update of what we are doing and also let you know where we are providing help and support. The situation and support available is changing very quickly, so we will continue to update our blog with information and guidance for borrowers and lenders as we go. Apologies in advance if there are gaps – no one has ever experienced times like these, but we’ll aim to plug these gaps as best we can.
We are keen to know how existing borrowers are coping during the outbreak and identify what assistance we can offer. We sent a survey last week to all existing borrowers as a health check to find out how resilient they are to the impact of Covid-19. Many borrowers have responded within the survey, by calling us and also through email. If you have a business loan through LendingCrowd and haven’t done so yet, please do. We’re listening and here to help. We have additional skilled professionals with years of finance industry experience that we have drafted in to this support area.
We know how confusing things are – especially where and how to benefit from some of the schemes announced by the Government over the last week. To this end, we will publish a guide on here for you to download that will cover all the help and support we know of – we don’t want to just send you to a Government department or pass you off with a website address, so we will make this as clear as possible on where you can access help. We are pulling this together now and will keep it constantly updated.
To our lenders, we are grateful for the patience many of you have shown while the picture starts to become clearer. Please be under no doubt that we are duty bound to have the best interests of both parties at heart. For those with Growth or Income accounts, we have recently switched off the auto-invest feature to help you evaluate the next move for your portfolio. This means that repayments will not be automatically reinvested, but sit in your account as a cash reserve. This means you won’t be exposed to automated reinvestment in businesses that may face future linked to Covid-19 and gives you some time to decide how to proceed with your investment.
We are implementing new criteria on some sectors for any new lending and will communicate further about this as we go. We are still seeing a steady stream of applications and will assess these in line with our new policy. Again we are driven by a will to do the right thing for both lenders and borrowers.
We will post updated information but in the meantime, here are some really useful sources of information.
This is a rapidly evolving situation and the UK Government has already set out a number of measures aimed at supporting businesses through the outbreak. You can find out more at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-employers-and-businesses-about-covid-19/covid-19-support-for-businesses
One of the key measures is the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, which can provide loans of up to £5 million for smaller businesses across the UK. The loans will be interest free for the first 12 months. You can find out more at: https://www.british-business-bank.co.uk/ourpartners/coronavirus-business-interruption-loan-scheme-cbils/
The Federation of Small Businesses is also a valuable source of information: https://www.fsb.org.uk/campaign/covid19.html
We will continue to communicate directly with our borrowers and lenders as this situation evolves. Updates will also be provided on this blog. If you have any questions, please email contactus@lendingcrowd.com or call 0345 564 1600.
The entire LendingCrowd team is working tirelessly to deliver the best possible outcomes for all. Thank you for your continued support.
Borrowers:
As a borrower, it’s important to remember that defaulting might lead to the debt being passed to an agency for collection. Remember, if in doubt please call us.
Lenders:
When lending to businesses, it is important to remember that your capital is at risk. LendingCrowd and its products are not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
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