LendInvest’s Christian Faes Reflects on Brexit Decision Four Weeks Later & Announces Revised Lending Criteria

Last week, CEO of LendInvest Christian Faes took to the website’s blog to reflect on the Brexit decision, which was voted on last month in the UK. Following the shocking vote to leave the European Union (EU), the largest peer-to-peer mortgage lender in the UK published a letter, signed by Faes and co-founder Ian Thomas, stating the website is moving into this period of transition as a “very well capitalized, profitable and with one of the most diverse funding bases” of any UK marketplace lender.

“Right now, our priority is ensuring that LendInvest remains a great place for very talented people to come to work, regardless of their country of origin. We have a great – and growing – team in place and it’s business as usual for all of us today.”

Faes wrote in the recent letter:

“At LendInvest, we are acutely aware of this uncertainty, throughout the wider economy and within the UK’s financial services and property sectors specifically. And yet, we remain very much open for business. Capital investments by new and returning investors remain strong and we are seeing the volume of deal originations to be sound, with some borrowers seeing Brexit as presenting an opportunity to get a better price in the market than before the vote.”

Christian noted that shortly after the vote, he and his team revised LendInvest’s lending criteria by tightening the platform’s terms for high-value purchases and temporarily pausing lending on new second charge cases. He noted:

“Steering clear of higher-risk loans is in fact a strategy we have undertaken for several months. Since last Autumn we have markedly reduced our lending in the high-valued, central London residential market which we felt was showing signs of overheating. Today, our focus is on residential properties which generate reasonable yields where our professional borrowers make investment decisions based on income, not on speculative assumptions of unrealistic capital appreciation.”

He then added the LendInvest team is confident that the short-term nature of the platform’s loans will continue to provide good liquidity for investors and will remain popular with borrowers who are looking for financing.