Wellesley & Co is planning to launch its new P2P lending product in Q3 2017 which will continue to service its customer base in the future. 

Customers with products maturing before 31st May will be able to re-invest their funds prior to the product being removed from the site.

Wellesley is currently working towards full authorisation from the FCA and says it currently has sufficient lender funds available which allows it to pause the existing P2P product while it makes changes to its product range over the coming months.

The announcement comes at the same time Wellesley revealed in its audited results for the year ended 31st December 2016, that its full-year loss was down to £210,288, compared to the £2.2m loss recorded the previous year. 

Wellesley also reported that of the 125 loans originated since the start of 2015, 20 (16%) were beyond the original term.

However, Stephen Ball, chief risk officer at Wellesley, said this was within the platform’s expectations. 

“In the previous review, I detailed how with development finance, a project taking longer to complete than its original contractual duration is not uncommon. 

“When a loan is expired, it does not specifically indicate that there will be a loss and it should be noted that the expiry does not affect the security that we hold over the property.”

Wellesley started 2016 with a provision stock of £3.4m and after write-offs of £2.3m and a net increase of £0.8m in the year, the provision stock at the end of 2016 was £1.9m. 

“The most recent review completed in May for the Wellesley Group Investors Ltd Board confirmed we believe that remaining future expected losses will fall within the provision stock,” added Stephen.

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“This positive trajectory is evidenced by lifetime losses as a percentage of lifetime lending now being 1% – reported at 1.2% at the last year end.”

Wellesley reported loan book growth of 10% to £163.6m during 2016 and recorded a £1.3m second half of the year profit before tax, while raising more than £100m of new P2P and bond investment.

“I am pleased to see the progress which the management team has made in the past year in an industry which is in a period of transition,” added David Godfrey, chairman of the group. 

“We returned to profit in the second half of the year, a trend we expect to continue through the first half of 2017, and management is developing a strong platform on which to build Wellesley’s future growth and long-term success.”

How will investors be impacted?

Wellesley stated that investors’ existing P2P lending investment would remain under its current terms until its contractual maturity, meaning it would not impact existing investments and investors don’t need to take any action on their account.

The platform has also reassured investors that the temporary removal of the product will not affect the way in which it services the loans which investors’ funds are matched to. 

“There will be no changes to the way in which your funds are managed and Wellesley will continue to provide you with a high level of service,” the statement read.

“You will continue to earn interest at the same rate and we will continue to service your existing investments as usual until the maturity of your lending terms.”

Investors will also be able to withdraw any funds sitting in a holding account or invest it into another one of Wellesley’s investment products.