P2P Money Blog

Lending Works has become the first major peer-t0-peer lending platform and P2P Finance Association member to obtain full authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority.  LendingWorks have also announced that their ISA will be launched in January, confirming the estimate provided by Nick Harding at LendIt Europe.

Here is the email sent to LendingWorks members:

We're fully authorised by the FCA

We are thrilled to announce that we've today received official confirmation from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) of our full authorisation as a financial services provider. This is a momentous occasion for Lending Works, and also means we are the first of the peer-to-peer lending platforms operating under interim permission to receive this approval.

It marks the end of a thorough, 12-month review in which our processes, systems, policies, financials and levels of compliance and risk management have undergone intense scrutiny from the UK's primary financial services regulator, and this green light from the FCA represents the ultimate stamp of approval. We hope that this news will further underscore your confidence in us, and all that we stand for.

Our ISA is coming soon

With this FCA approval in hand, it now paves the way for us to apply to become an ISA Manager with HM Revenue & Customs. Once this formality is complete, we'll be eligible to deliver the Lending Works Individual Savings Account (ISA), a product we plan to launch in January. We are waiting until January to launch our ISA for a number of reasons, namely: the expected waiting period for obtaining ISA Manager approval, the fact that we have other major releases planned for the next couple of months, avoiding launching before or during the Christmas break, and to align the launch with the January-to-April 'ISA season'.

New branding, website and user dashboard

In a few weeks' time, we will launch new branding that we hope is befitting of our position as an innovative financial services technology firm. In addition, we will launch an easy to navigate, simple-yet-informative new website and intuitive new user dashboard. We will introduce you to the new brand, website, logo and lender dashboard closer to the time of launch, but we are confident it will further enhance your customer experience.

Partnerships

Finally, we have also got several new major partnerships going live soon too. These partnerships will bring more and more high-quality borrowers to our platform, which in turn will benefit you, our lenders.

But for now, we hope you will share in our delight at having made this significant step up with the FCA - a launchpad we believe will drive us towards even bigger and better things.

If you have any questions regarding the above, or any other matters, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us. 

All the best,

Nick Harding
Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer

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