Assetz Capital to open accounts for Orca’s orphaned investors

Assetz Capital has told Orca investors with exposure to its loans that they can now access accounts directly through its peer-to-peer business lending platform.

Orca, which provided an investment aggregator service across several P2P platforms, announced last month that it is closing to retail investors. Customers still invested in loans that are in arrears or default have been told to deal directly with each P2P platform.

Assetz Capital has told investors that while it can’t merge Orca accounts automatically, investors can contact customer services to get one set up.

Users will need to provide identity documents, set up two-factor authentication and pass the Assetz Capital appropriateness test.

“For the foreseeable future the merging of Orca accounts into existing Assetz Capital Accounts will not be possible, due to other higher priority platform enhancements, relevant to the majority of investors, taking precedent,” Martin Heelam, director of investor relationships for Assetz Capital, said.

“But we do hope to be able to offer this facility in the future, even though we aren’t able to specify a timeframe.”

Investors who already have Assetz Capital accounts will have to open a separate one.

Orca invested in loans on platforms including Lending Works, Assetz Capital and LendingCrowd.

It started life as a P2P research firm, going on to launch an investment platform in 2018 and an Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA) in 2019 that invests across a range of P2P platforms. Chief executive Iain Niblock said the new Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulations made operating harder as it was difficult to complete the new affordability assessments on behalf of each investor.

- February 28, 2020