Wellesley & Co is a P2P (peer to peer) business lender. It is debt funding for borrowers and loans are secured against assets (usually property). As an investor you are the lender giving money to the borrower.
Key facts and figures
Launched: 2013
Minimum investment: £10
Minimum term: 18 months
Requirements to invest: Must be over 18 and have a bank account able to transfer funds to UK bank accounts.
Cumulative volume lent: £256,426,712
Type of borrowers: Predominantly developers
Money lent in last 12 months: £172,442,305
Market share % over last 3 months according to Liberum AltFi Volume Index UK: 3.86%
Current rates of return (according to Wellesley & Co 5 May 2015)
Term
Monthly interest
Interest paid on maturity
18 months
4.00%
4.10%
3 years
4.75%
5.10%
5 years
5.50%
6.32%
Getting started
Registration on the Wellesley & Co. website takes about two minutes.
Choose amount to invest, deposit funds, and choose how long you want to invest for and at what rate.
Can pay in more money at any time, but can’t add to an existing term.
Getting money on the platform
Funds are sent to their segregated client account by bank transfer or cheque using your unique reference number.
Do investors get a choice in who or what they invest in?
No, Wellesley & Co.’s auto matching process gives each investor a proportionate amount of exposure to every loan on the platform.
Investing your money
Choose term from 18 months to five years, and Wellesley do the rest.
As part of their Auto-Matching process, their lenders' funds are matched to all loans on a volume weighted basis, which gives investors a proportionate amount of each loan.
Monitoring your account
By logging on to your account you can see the total number of loans you are matched to. This figure will change each week after auto matching as your diversification grows in line with their loan book.
Understanding the risks
The biggest risk posed to investors with P2P is if one of their borrowers does not repay their loan, meaning the lenders’ capital is at risk.
Wellesley only participate in asset backed lending meaning the total value of the loan is secured against an asset. If the borrower does not repay their loan they can sell the asset to seek to cover any shortfall. They only lend to borrowers who have a good quality assets that we believe could be sold readily.
If a loan goes into default Wellesley will automatically apply to the Provision Fund to cover any shortfalls in interest and capital that you suffer as a result. If the provision fund was unable to cover any losses of capital and interest they contact you to make you aware that your borrower is in default and explain the next steps of the enforcement process, which they manage on your behalf.
As with all loans secured against property, a borrowers ability to repay may be affected by a downturn in the property market.
Their provision fund is £1,895,000 at 28 September 2015.
Withdrawing money
Interest is paid monthly or on maturity of the loan. Capital is paid on maturity.
Wellesley do offer a service which allows a lender to gain access to their money which has been matched together with any accrued interest they have earned through a process of re-assigning their loan to another lender. Therefore not an instant process.
There is no charge for Early Access and you will be able to review your interest charge penalty before confirming your decision to remove your funds. This process will affect your interest rate which Wellesley will adjust to match how long your funds have been lent for. Your new rate will be applicable to your original lending date.
Withdrawals can also be requested, and in most cases will be available by next working day.
