borro's US lending hits $3m

borro's US lending hits $3m




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p>Back in January of this year, UK-based personal asset lender borro identified a gap in the US marketplace and brought its proposition across the Atlantic to set up additional headquarters in New York. Jason McGee-Abe caught up with Paul Aitken, borro's CEO, to find out how the move to the US has gone so far...

Within the first ten days of the lender’s online soft-launch it had already issued over $100,000 of loans.

borro is firmly making its mark in the US market, having lent over $3,000,000 to date to individuals and small business owners in need of short term financing.

Paul Aitken told B&C: “We have had demand for more and currently have a working pipeline of deals which has made us confident that we’ll be lending $1 million per month by the end of this year.”

The US population as a whole own more of the types of assets which can be lent against than any other country. US clients generally have higher value assets, and in comparison to the average £4,000 loan in the UK that borro fund, the current average loan size in the US is $10,000.

borro typically lends up to 70 per cent of the asset value and its interest rates range from 2.99 to 3.99 per cent per month. The take-up in the US has been significant.

Paul said: “More people are realising that they hold a wealth of assets that they can use to access finance – either to fund a business opportunity like the majority of our customers do or to cover temporary cash flow issues.”

Since its US launch, the most popular assets used as security are art and antiques, diamond jewellery, watches, gold and prestige cars.

borro has already lent against some interesting high value personal assets, including:

-    A Riley RMB classic car;

-    Several Picasso prints;

-    3ct diamond earrings;

-    Over 500 ounces of silver bars;

-    A Cartier Time Piece.

Paul Aitken added: “We are exceptionally pleased with our performance and are thrilled to see the level of growth that has occurred since launch in the US. We find that individuals are beginning to realise that they hold a wealth of assets that they can use to access finance – either to cover temporary cash flow issues or to fund a business opportunity, like the majority of our customers do.

“There is also a great demand from small business owners in the US looking to access capital quickly to ensure the business is able to take advantage of growth opportunities. We expect our lending numbers to continue to grow at a rapid pace throughout the year.”

There has been an increasing demand for borro’s funding over the months, not only due to the company becoming increasingly known in the US but because of an increasing trend of consumers looking towards alternative ways to raise cash by borrowing against personal assets.

As trust is gradually built with clients and strategic partners in the US, borro’s proposition is sure to grow as it helps US consumers with their liquidity issues.

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