Funding Circle hopes to grow enough to tap securitisations
CROWDFUNDING company Funding Circle hopes it will be big enough in the coming years to parcel up loans and sell them on to external investors, opening up a new source of finance for the alternative lender.
Currently, it is backed by individual and institutional investors, and makes loans to small businesses.
In the final quarter of this year, the firm hopes to lend out $175m (£112m), up from $71m in the same period of 2013.
Banks such as Santander already back the lender, and one future route could lie in securitisations.
These offer another source of funding for banks – portfolios of loans are sold to investors, returning the money to the lender more quickly and letting it recycle those funds into new loans.
The borrowers whose loans have been sold continue to pay their debts back to the new owner.
Around 30 per cent of Funding Circle’s backing comes from institutions, compared with 80 per cent in the US market – a mix which could change if it securitises loans.