Assetz Capital, a UK peer-to-peer finance platform, has committed to expansion in Northern Ireland under the guidance of recently appointed Regional Relationship Director, Andrew Fraser.
Fraser joins Assetz Capital from Santander UK Corporate and Commercial. In this role he was a Business Development Director covering the Northern Ireland region. Fraser’s new role is to help local businesses acquire finance through the peer-to-peer platform and ensure borrowing through the Assetz Capital platform runs smoothly.
Stuart Law, CEO of Assetz Capital, says: "We see Northern Ireland as a key growth area and feel we have a very strong offering to assist small and mid sized businesses looking for funding. Andrew brings a great wealth of experience to his role as Regional Relationship Director and knows the SME and property landscape of Northern Ireland incredibly well. 2017 is set to be our biggest year yet and will firmly cement us as one of the UK’s leading peer to peer lenders, so it’s vital to have Andrew on board to help us achieve this goal.”
Fraser says: “I’ve been working in corporate finance and property funding across Northern Ireland for more than 15 years and I’ve seen the issues that SMEs face when it comes to acquiring capital. I believe Assetz Capital is well placed to help, and my role will be to increase the awareness of peer-to-peer lending as well as ensuring that businesses which gain funding through Assetz Capital realise the benefits of this now established form of business funding.”
Founded in 2013, Assetz Capital is now the fifth largest P2P platform in Europe, and one of the fastest growing in the market. It is one of only two Defaqto “5 Star” rated P2P platforms, and also recently announced that its investors have earned a gross interest of more than GBP18m since launch in 2013, and over GBP108m was lent to British SMEs in 2016.
Assetz Capital has become known for its secured lending model where every loan is backed with property, and/or other realisable security in order to reduce the risk of actual loss for investors. As a result, the company has one of the lowest loss rates in the market. Currently there is over GBP500 million available and ready to lend to credit-worthy SMEs through the platform.
