The world’s only secured and insured SME lending platform has just announced an intriguing tie up with Asset Match. Asset Match is an online hub upon which the shares of private companies may be auctioned off for fair value and in a transparent fashion. Though typically specializing in the trading of equity holdings, Asset Match will now provide a secondary marketplace for ArchOver loan parts.
It’s a shrewd move on the part of ArchOver management – who’ve clearly recognized that unforeseen circumstance can often cause retail lenders in particular to want to liquidate their investments. The problem with most of the world’s peer-to-peer lending sites – especially those as early-stage as ArchOver – is that they either don’t feature a secondary market, or that their secondary markets are highly illiquid.
This partnership should help to circumvent the problem of a dustbowl-like secondary market. ArchOver loan-parts may now be sold as a new asset type on the Asset Match hub – affording loan-holders access to over 1,000 registered investors. These Asset Match investors are comprised largely of high net worth individuals and institutions. In other words, there’s a decent likelihood that you’ll be able to trade away ArchOver investments if necessary.
Iain Baillie, Co-CEO of Asset Match, explained:
“Providing a hub for the buying and selling of ArchOver’s loans is an important step in helping the growth of crowdlending as it addresses a main concern of investors and the regulator – illiquidity in the secondary market. The partnership expands our offering into the P2P loan market and fits in well with our vision of developing the pre-eminent liquidity venue for UK Private company shares.”
We recently profiled the innovative portal that is Asset Match – touting it as a potentially integral puzzle piece in the equity crowdfunding ecosystem in years to come. But today’s news highlights the potential of the portal as an already valuable ally to the equally exciting peer-to-peer lending sector. We wouldn’t be surprised to see a number of peer-to-peer loan providers follow the lead of ArchOver on this one.
