Funding Circle investors face four month wait to withdraw cash
Funding Circle is conducting an internal review after it was revealed investors are having to wait more than 16 weeks to withdraw cash.
The peer-to-peer platform told The Times it was “exploring a range of options” to tackle the problem delaying investors from selling their loans in its secondary market.
Funding Circle has around 80,000 retails investors and arranges loans for small and medium-sized companies by linking them with retail and institutional investors.
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Since 2010 it has arranged £7.5bn worth of loans to around 72,000 businesses, with investors earning around £290m in interest.
However the review has raised worries that it may become even more difficult to get cash out of the platform.
Those wishing to sell out of their lending positions have faced increasingly long queues since the end of last year as the waiting period has gone from less than one week to more than 100 days.
Funding Circle’s value has plummeted by 80 per cent since its flotation a year ago valued it at £1.5bn.
Earlier this month the company fell out of the FTSE 250.
It told investors it is “reviewing the functionality of our secondary market to try to ensure the best possible outcomes for customers”.
It also said its terms and conditions “state that loan parts put up for sale will be removed from the queue if they don’t sell within 120 days”.
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The firm said it had paused the 120-day condition but was considering enforcing it.
How long it takes to sell is dependent on levels of demand from other investors. It is not a guaranteed feature of the service.
Investors can also access funds by stopping their investment through the platform and opting to receive monthly repayments of principal and interest as loans are paid back.