Frequently asked questions

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Most Asked

What Is The Rate of Return That An Investor can Receive? – A blend of Utilised and Unutilised Rate

The Investor makes a bid for a loan at the rate that it selects for when the Borrower uses the funds. This is the rate for the funds when Utilised. What does this mean, it means the rate of return received by the Investor when the funds are utilised by the trade account holder.(Borrower). The product available to the Borrower is a line of credit or overdraft. The feature of the product is that when the Borrower does not use all of the funds it is offered, and the funds unused are available to the borrower but at the Unutilised Rate which is typically 7%.
These funds are not at risk during this time, and are held in a deposit taking institution with an international long term credit rating of at least AA- by Standard and Poors. For more information on the typical percentage of use of funds, please see our statistics.

What Is The Minimum Amount Of Funds That An Investor can Invest?

The minimum amount of funds that can be invested is A$100 as this is the minimum amount that can be bid on a listing on the platform. Any other amounts received below this amount are credited to your name, however they cannot be used until your account balance is A$100.

What Is The Minimum Amount An Investor Can Withdraw?

The minimum amount of funds that can be withdrawn is A$100. If a withdrawal is sought below this amount, Marketlend may charge a fee per withdrawal request. Any withdrawal cannot occur until Marketlend satisfies its anti-money laundering requirements.

What Is The Minimum Trade Credit Amount Listed?

The minimum trade credit amount that can be listed is A$10,000, subject to internal approval by Marketlend. The minimum bidding amount is A$100.

Is My Bid Binding?

  • When you make a bid on the Marketlend platform, it is immediately binding and remains binding to the end of the auction.
  • When making a bid, please exercise caution when choosing the rate and the amount that you wish to bid as they are binding. If you make an error, please contact administrator@marketlend.com.au. At its sole discretion, Marketlend may cancel your bid if Marketlend is satisfied that you made a genuine mistake.
  • At the end of the auction or if the loan is fully offered, the borrower must accept all bids. If the loan is fully subscribed, that is the total amount of bids equal the loan amount sought, before or at the end of the auction you cannot cancel your bid. The loan will proceed to settlement where your bid will become part of the loan that you own.
  • If the loan is not fully subscribed at the end of the auction, and the Borrower does not accept the bids, you can cancel your bid and your funds will be credited to your account.
  • If the auction is extended, you have the option to cancel your bid or keep the bid offered.

General

Why Marketlend, Using Peer to Peer Lending, Provides a Better Solution to the Borrower

  • Simply put, peer to peer lending gives the borrower direct access to investors.
  • It gives the borrower a wider lender base, by removing their reliance on a single or few lenders;
  • It offers the borrower the ability to build their own investor base for future bond or equity offerings;
  • It gives the borrower flexibility in the loan terms;
  • It provides the borrower, the ability to offer security other than property real estate;
  • It gives the borrower and investor flexibility in the type of product, they can obtain, or invest in e.g trade credit, debit finance or supply chain finance;
  • It removes a lot of the transaction costs by enabling the borrower to bypass the middlemen and access the capital market’s investors to obtain credit;
  • It enables the borrower to get lenders to understand its businesses;

What Is The Approval Process For a Loan?

Approval process is as follows:

  • A borrower enters his details through a website application form on app.marketlend.com.au;
  • After a 10 page completion, he either electronically signs his application via Docusign, or prints his application and returns the signed application back to Marketlend;
  • The completed application & the financials are assessed by chartered accountants, and qualified risk officers.
  • A report is prepared to determine a number of factors for the risk assessment model and to assist investors in their review of the risk;
  • The application is processed by our proprietary risk assessment model, an automated model that takes approximately 65 factors into account to give a result as to the likelihood of the repayment of principal and interest on the credit;
  • The applicant is advised of his risk assessment result, the expected rate of interest and a commentary by our risk analyst, based on an interview with the borrower about his business, financials, application and risk assessment result;
  • A senior manager is then notified by an alert system that the application has met all the requirements to proceed to listing; and
  • A listing is place on the marketplace, where investors can bid on a loan.

How Long Does It Take?

This process can take a few hours, however in some cases, it may be as little as 10 minutes.

Are the Bids binding

      • The bids by investors are binding and when the loan is fully subscribed an applicant must accept them.
      • We do recommend many ways to encourage full subscription of listings and promote listings to encourage bids. However we cannot guarantee or warrant full subscription of a listing.
      • Applicants are encouraged to keep an eye on their listing, and funded bonus payments are available in certain circumstances.
      • There will be times when a listing is not fully subscribed, the applicant has a choice, either accept the bids or ask that the loan is extended for another period.
      • A listing can be extended for 3 additional periods. A period is 1 week.
      • At the end of the last period, the applicant must accept all bids at that time or the bids will be cancelled and the listing is restarted without any bids or at the request of the applicant, the listing will be removed, and the application fee is forfeited.

What Does Insurance Cover Mean?

The policy covers up to 90% of the value of the trade receivable.

Marketlend can make a claim against this insurance policy when the counterparty becomes insolvent.

QBE is the insurance provider. As of September 2015, QBE holds a rated A+ by Standard and Poors. For more information about QBE see their website.

Does It Provides Access To People Who Could Not Get A Loan?

Marketlend will not lend to borrowers who are unable to get credit elsewhere.

Marketlend and you are able to see how many queries a borrower has made. Therefore you can ensure you are not a lender of last resort.

As Marketlend invests with you, it will not offer a listing that is uncomfortable with the risk profile. A borrower with defaults greater than A$2000 is ineligible to list on Marketlend.

Can Borrowers Expect Better Priced Loans Than Through Traditional Lenders?

When a comparison is made between business loans not secured against property real estate, trade credit, debtor invoicing, it is definitely cheaper, varying between 4-8% in some cases.

How Do We Manage The Investment Risk For Lenders?

Insurance, and loss provision, and loss protection (Marketlend investing in the first loss), are key measures we take to manage the investment risk.

Additionally we provide collection, monitoring and enforcement services to protect the investment risk.

Has there been any losses, and where can I see the performance data?

To date no investor has suffered a loss, we do get loans that fall into arrears and statistics will show the performance. You can see the performance data by going to the statistics

What Does Marketlend Platform Offer Lenders?

For a Lender, It Offers:

      • High returns;
      • Direct access to the borrower;
      • A structured environment that gives them analysis of credit, loan management and collections facilities;
      • First loss protection in the form of insurance or cash collateral support or both;
      • Real time reporting
      • Transparency

How MarketLend Works

What Does Marketlend Do?

Marketlend provides a stable online platform for peer to peers to interact, for the provision of, and investment in, trade credit.

What Protections Do You Offer?

Marketlend’s platform is underpinned by protection against loss and fraud. To achieve this, Marketlend undertakes credit checks, establishes a risk assessment using a propertiary model of expectation of repayment, and facilitates the administration of the loan.

This enables Marketlend to quickly provide its customers with access to capital that is normally earmarked for investment with banks, and investors with access to sound investment opportunities.

Are There Any Fees?

Marketlend charges a platform fee to provide all the processing and mitigation of the risk. All transaction costs are transparent and typically lower than traditional bank loan costs. This means if you are a borrower you get lower rates or if you are an investor you get potentially stronger returns. There is no reward without risk. However, Marketlend minimises the risks wherever possible. For more details on fees please check out

What Legal Protections Do You Use?

Marketlend uses the best possible legal protection in this emergent marketplace that was well proven throughout the recent global financial crisis. Investors are protected by the fact that Marketlend is the first peer to peer lender to secure every loan in a securitized special purpose company or trust protected by an independent trustee, Australian Executors Trustee Limited, part of the IOOF group. The IOOF group has been helping Australians secure their future since 1846 and manage and administer more than $121.9 billion of client monies (as at 30 June 2014), and are listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in the ASX top 100 (ASX:IFL).

It means you have a secured beneficial right in a special purpose company or a secured note in a trust held by a trustee, an independent company controlling the assets and all monies. Where a trust is used, loans are held in separate legal trusts, or in the case of a special purpose company, it is structured so to protect it from being declared insolvent. All payments have a set payment structure so there is no possible misappropriation, and all funds are held in Marketlend’s bank accounts.

Furthermore, Marketlend, a subsidiary of Tyndall Capital Pty Ltd, is constituted as a bankruptcy remote corporate.

Accounting Terms

      • Debt/Equity Ratio is a debt ratio used to measure a company’s financial leverage, calculated by dividing a company’s total liabilities by its stockholders’ equity. The D/E ratio indicates how much debt a company is using to finance its assets relative to the amount of value represented in shareholders’ equity.
      • Net Yield means the return of interest paid by the investor less any fees and expenses of the trust or Marketlend where applicable.
      • Debt Servicing Ratio (DSCR) is a measure of the cash flow available to pay current debt obligations. The ratio states net operating income as a multiple of debt obligations due within one year, including interest, principal, sinking-fund and lease payments.For more explanation, check it here

Payments & Fees

Fees

The fees for the administration of the platform are charged as a product of the difference between what the borrower pays in interest and the interest that the investor receives. Typically these fees are 23% of interest received subject to the complexity of the loan, this is not the rate charged to the underlying borrower, and are disclosed on your statement.

      • The fees are shown on the investor dashboard as a platform fee and are only chargeable when interest is received from the borrower.
      • The fees cover the origination, credit processing, analysis, reporting, placement on the Marketlend platform, provision of the bid and offer process, legal documentation, support staffing, collections performed by Marketlend, monitoring of the loans and communication services by Marketlend. None of these fees cover the use of third party services which are payable upon their occurrence and with your authority.

Other fees are:

      • An application fee charged to the borrower of A$300 payable on application.
      • Completion fees paid by the borrower on settlement.
      • Default fees where a borrower fails to pay on time
      • Collection fees in the event of a defaulting borrower. In most cases, these fees will be paid from the borrower and then from any loss reserves allocated to the borrower’s loan. These are A$15 per day or 26% whichever is the greater.

Payments and Investing Funds:

      • Payments are made by direct debit for borrowers. Investors can add funds either by bank transfer, credit card or direct debit or paypal.

Please see the heading Rates and Fees, and if you are still unclear or have questions, call us on +61(0)2 80066798.

Legal

Who Is Marketlend?

Marketlend is an Australia based marketplace lender that uses a stable online platform enabling small to medium enterprises (SME) to obtain trade credit either in the form of payment of goods and services on their behalf, or the purchase of invoices issued by them from monies provided by one or more investors. The total amount of individual unique bids by investors equates to a trade credit limit that is provided to the SME.

How Does Marketlend Enable The Legal Arrangements Between The Investors And The Borrower, Is The Marketlend The Lender?

Marketlend is not the lender. It utilises direct lending agreements where the investors, being the peers, enter into an agreement with the customer, the SME, to advance monies up to the credit limit when required. The borrower terms are entered into by the Borrower at application, and binding upon 100% subscription of the Borrower’s listing.

What Regulatory Regime Does Marketlend Operate Under?

Marketlend is a special purpose bankruptcy remote company, and all services are provided by Tyndall Capital. Tyndall Capital is an AFSL holder (Licence No. 503796) and provider of all financial services to Marketlend.

Marketlend is a standalone special purpose company with no recourse agreements with any party, and no employees. It is specifically established as the seller entity to the trusts in a securitisation structure and holds the receivables to sell to the trusts either on the day of settlement or within a short period thereafter or at a time it elects.

What Legal Structures Does Marketlend Use To Enable Investors To Participate In The Loans?

Marketlend uses a securitisation structure under which a securitisation trust (Trust) is established for the sole receivable (typically a trade credit facility) on behalf of one or more investors who fund that Trust.

A separate Trust is established for each trade credit limit which ensures the relevant receivable is segregated for the benefit of the investors of that Trust. Trade credit is originated by either Marketlend or the trustee of the Trust (Trustee) who is the trade credit account provider.

The Trustee also grants security over the assets of each Trust in favour of a security trustee (Security Trustee) who holds that security for the benefit of the investors of that Trust (and other secured creditors of that Trust).

Investors are therefore afforded the dual protections of (i) the Trust and (ii) security over the assets of the Trust which is held by an independent professional trustee company (Australian Executor Trustees Limited).

Are Securitisation Structures Commonly Used In Australia And Globally For These Types Of Transactions?

Whilst securitisation marketplace lending structures have only recently been introduced into Australia, the United States has a mature securitisation marketplace lending market. Some examples of large marketplace lenders in the US which use securitisation structures include Prosper, OnDeck Capital, Lending Club and Social Finance.

We have observed an increased institutional investor base in the Australian marketplace lending market which has driven the use of securitisation structures. Securitisation structures contain the additional dual layer legal protections, described above, which more sophisticated investors often require.

If I Am A Retail Investor Can I Invest?

Marketlend Pty Ltd (Marketlend) is a platform for wholesale, sophisticated and experienced investors to directly lend to individuals or companies or partnerships and enable investors to sell and buy parts of loans. You cannot invest. Feel free to contact our office on 02 80066798 or assistance@marketlend.com.au to find out if you are a retail investor if you are unsure.

Are Marketlend And Tyndall Capital Audited Regularly, By Whom And When?

    • Marketlend and Tyndall Capital are audited by Delolittes Accounting Firm.
    • The insurance broker’s representatives (on behalf of the insurer) assess and review the operations of Marketlend, and its service provider, Tyndall Capital monthly.
    • Additionally our insurer is sent reports on a quarterly basis by Marketlend to monitor underlying credit exposures and more regularly escalated risk debtors.
    • If you are still unclear or have questions, call us on +61 (0)2 80066798

 

 


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