Key Investor Information

Your capital is at risk

This is an investment account, not a bank account. As with all peer-to-peer lending there is no guarantee you’ll get back what you put in. We try to give you a rough idea what kind of losses to expect, but these figures are estimates.

We are not protected by the FSCS

Like all peer-to-peer lending platforms, we're not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). This means that, if we go out of business for any reason, our investors can't get their money back from the FSCS. However, we operate under the FCA’s CASS regime so any client funds held in client account(s) as Client Money would be protected by the CASS regulations.

However, that doesn't necessarily mean you'd lose your money. If we did go out of business, the underlying loan agreement would still be in place between you and the business that borrowed your money, as would the security against the loan. And, because we're regulated by the FCA, we have what's called a ‘wind-down plan’ in place, which makes sure that our business and our loan book should be subject to an orderly wind-down should Assetz Capital fail.

Target interest rates

The advertised target interest rates on our Access Accounts are quoted gross (before tax and any possible losses) and are per annum. They’re also capped at the target rate, which means that you could earn less but you can’t earn more.

You can find these target rates along with more information on each of the account pages.

Don't forget your taxes

We don't deduct any tax at source, so you'll need to make sure you know how much tax you have to pay to HMRC, and when you need to pay it. We can't advise you on this, so if you're unsure, we recommend that you talk to a professional tax adviser.

Loan security

To help to reduce the risk of loss, all our loans hold borrowers' assets as security. The vast majority of our loans are secured by one or more of the following: property, land, equipment, stock, machinery, debtors or other assets. So, if the borrower can't pay back the loan, we can use these assets to get back some or all of the money they owe you. It’s worth noting that the value of security can vary over the lifetime of the loan so even with loan security it is not possible to be certain that there will never be a loss.

We publish the ‘Loan to Value’ (LTV) or ‘Loan to Gross Development Value’ (LTGDV – in the case of a construction or development) on every loan. This helps to provide an indication of the loan value, versus the value of the security. You can view the full details of any security taken in the credit report.

Past performance does not guarantee future performance

We've probably all seen this phrase a lot. It basically means that what happened in the past can't help us predict the future. As an example, an investment might have performed well historically, but that doesn't mean it will always do so.

We do our best to predict potential returns and losses, but we can't guarantee anything. You'll need to weigh up the potential returns against the potential losses and reach your own judgement about whether an investment is right for you.

Normal market conditions

“Normal market conditions” means economic conditions are reasonably stable, our lenders are making withdrawals from the ‘Access Accounts’ (Quick Access, 30 Day Access & 90 Day Access Accounts) in the normal course of business and other lenders are willing and able to buy their loan units through those accounts and others that we offer. Our Access Accounts may hold a certain amount of cash “liquid” to help increase the liquidity of withdrawal requests above and beyond normal market supply and demand. In Normal Market Conditions, withdrawals from the Access Accounts to a lender’s Cash Account are completed within one business day at a 0% discount.

However, past performance doesn’t guarantee future performance and abnormal market conditions could possibly change the speed of withdrawals. Abnormal market conditions would typically arise from a very large, sudden and extended demand to withdraw cash from the Access Accounts. This might be caused by a global recession, a pandemic, an abrupt and widespread loss of faith in peer-to-peer lending or a number of other situations. Therefore if a significant number of lenders chose to withdraw their cash in significant quantities and no (or few) new lenders were available to buy their loan parts, conditions would at that point become abnormal and the Access Accounts would not be then able to maintain their standard speed of access for withdrawals.

Ultimately this could mean that lenders may have to wait until a buyer could be found for their loans held within the Access Accounts, or until the loans were repaid over time by the borrowers (through monthly repayments made by borrowers or by loans naturally reaching the end of their term for full repayment). The repayment of loans should continue to create some capital which would be available for withdrawal by investors regardless of market conditions being abnormal.

This is the reason that we quote the “in normal market conditions” message everywhere that we refer to Access Account withdrawal times; we can’t guarantee access times in all possible economic scenarios and we want our lenders to understand that. For more information about the amount of liquidity you can expect outside of normal market conditions click here.

Withdrawal Fee in Non-Normal Market Conditions

With effect from 1st May 2021, the Withdrawal Fee of 1% per annum, or the equivalent of 0.083% per month will apply to investors making withdrawals from the Access Accounts but only on the amounts which are awaiting withdrawal and only when the accounts are not operating within Normal Market Conditions. The fee only applies to the value of tradable loans that are being sold and withdrawn and is time-weighted, so investors will only be charged for the time they are actively withdrawing eligible funds. Please click here for full details.