Nick Harding

Lending Works

Co-founder, CEO

Nick co-founded and is CEO of Lending Works, the UK’s leading disrupter in providing of personal loans through partnerships. Lending Works’ ultimate goal is to create the UK’s leading consumer credit business, providing a range of innovative consumer credit products, all with game-changing customer experience. While working in the financial services industry, Nick recognised that the mindset adopted by most financial services companies was simply wrong. Instead, Nick and the team are passionate about making people’s lives better by providing simple and fair financial products. Since launching in 2014, individual and institutional investors have lent almost £100m to over 15,000 creditworthy people via the Lending Works platform. Lending Works forecasts to grow to £1bn of loans per annum by 2022. Equity investors in the business include VCs and credit fund managers.

Event Sessions Featuring Nick Harding

Roundtable (Breakout)

Making the Marketplace ‐ Round Table Discussion

London Summit 2018 - 26th March 2018

All in attendance were in agreement: marketplaces are something we can expect to see coming out of every digital bank, sooner or later. But will the model become a money maker? Clark doesn't think so, suggesting that Tandem prefers to see its marketplace as simply a "benefit to the customer" over a tool for profitability. Myatt also pointed out that we have yet to determine an exact and widespread definition of what we mean by 'marketplace': does it refer to only third-party products being sold by a bank, or will banks eventually sell their own services and products within their apps too?
In essence, the marketplace model should be about "putting the customer's data back in their hands" and allowing them to get the most out of it, said Barbosa. Indeed, both Chisell and Magliulo added that a marketplace should be about "giving way" to those who are specialised, in order to create the most value for their customers. Campbell mentioned that Bud has found higher traction from users sits on non-core products and services: things like energy-switching, travel perks and insurance.
However Plumb warned that at times the marketplace has become a "sexy term" for a bank's partnership strategy, when what they're really offering is not a true marketplace at all. Often we speak about marketplaces as if they are just one generic product, but as in the case of robo advisors, not all marketplaces will be a good fit. Bibas suggested that each bank should develop a specific strategy for different partners, allowing them to create true customer value.
For the future, Moreni highlighted the need for banks to be focusing on what value in a marketplace really means to their customers. Whether you give a customer 10 or 3 choices for a service, "it doesn't matter unless you know what it is your customer needs from you," said Dallas. Muis agreed, sayng that if you want people to give up their data, banks will have to show them the value they're going to gain as a result. While a partnership strategy is a no-brainer for most, it'll be the new categories that come out of the marketplace model that will be the most exciting to watch.

Panel

Fintech synergies in action

AltFi Europe Summit 2017 - 30th March 2017

Articles By Nick Harding

Traditional Financial Institution: Friend or Foe?

10th February 2015 | Nick Harding

Articles Featuring Nick Harding

Lending Works hits £150m of loans in five years

29th January 2019 | Daniel Lanyon

Lending Works appointments new board members

14th November 2018 | Daniel Lanyon

Lending Works scoops £2.8m fundraise

12th July 2018 | Ryan Weeks

Challenger bureau claims lead in Open Banking ‘rollout race’

9th May 2018 | Ryan Weeks

Lending Works passes £100m lending milestone

18th April 2018 | Emily Nicolle

Are marketplaces the future of digital banking?

21st March 2018 | Andy Davis

P2P lender to smooth applications through Open Banking initiative

19th February 2018 | Ryan Weeks

Online marketplace lenders to pass on savings from rate rise

1st November 2017 | Emily Nicolle

Revolut partners with peer-to-peer lender on instant credit offering

14th March 2017 | Ryan Weeks

Lending Works launches new innovative finance ISA

8th February 2017 | Lisa Walls-Hester

Lending Works gets full authorisation, ISA manager status to follow

13th October 2016 | Ryan Weeks

Retail investors have good understanding of P2P, says study

10th October 2016 | Ryan Weeks

Lending Works raises £3m

7th July 2016 | Ryan Weeks

Lending Works Sees Strong IFISA Demand

21st April 2016 | Ryan Weeks

Frontline Buzz From P2PFA Breakfast – IFISAs, Provision Funds and Lord Turner

23rd February 2016 | Ryan Weeks

Digging into Lending Works’ loan book

8th December 2015 | Sam Griffiths

The “Innovative Finance ISA” Arrives

8th July 2015 | Ryan Weeks

Do alternative finance platforms have an incentive problem?

4th June 2015 | Ryan Weeks

Lending Works Pension Provision goes Live

6th May 2015 | Georgina McCreadie

Lending Works Pension Provision goes Live

13th April 2015 | Georgina McCreadie

Lending Works Refines Pensioner Offering

23rd March 2015 | Ryan Weeks

Lending Works Tailors Product to Pensioners

17th March 2015 | Ryan Weeks

Lending Works Rolls Out RATE LOCK Product

23rd January 2015 | Ryan Weeks

Lending Works Adds to Board

20th January 2015 | Georgina McCreadie

Lending Works Looks to Further Boost Investor Protection

11th November 2014 | AltFi

P2PFA Opens Gates to New Platform

2nd October 2014 | AltFi

A Platform on the Rise in the P2P Space

30th May 2014 | AltFi

The Breakout Room at AltFi

13th March 2014 | Ryan Weeks

The AltFi Frontline: The Next Big Things

21st January 2014 | Ryan Weeks

Lending Works Eyes Yorkshire as Lending Hotspot

16th January 2014 | Ryan Weeks