Lendermarket cooperates with Loan Originators from around the globe to offer investment opportunities to investors. It is one of our top priorities to carefully select Loan Originators, as we are committed to minimising the risk while offering our investors investment solutions with high interest returns.
Our new Loan Originators go through various stages of due diligence before their loans are listed on Lendermarket. This article will go through these stages to familiarise you with our processes and explain why we conduct this due diligence.
What is Due Diligence and why does Lendermarket perform it?
Due Diligence, in simple words, is a rigorous analysis of a potential Loan Originator, including the company’s financial and legal records and other important details. Lendermarket performs Due Diligence of potential partners to ensure Loan Originator will be an excellent fit for the platform and investors.
Due Diligence consists of monitoring different layers of potential Loan Originator business. Let’s look at the Loan Originator Due Diligence process in more detail.
Loan originator Due Diligence process in Lendermarket
Pre-Due Diligence
During this stage, initial conversations are held with the Loan Originator to introduce Lendermarket’s platform. We then send them a pre-due diligence questionnaire to establish certain details such as: a general overview of their lending products, loan portfolio and loan parameters. This stage is completed to better understand the Loan Originator’s operations and appetite for funding from Lendermarket and its investors.
Company & Legal Due Diligence
During this stage, the legal and compliance team conducts research on the company and validates the corporate information. The information gathered during this phase includes but is not limited to: ownership structure, corporate governance, internal policies, and details on management (including criminal records). This phase is conducted in line with Crowdfunding Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2020/1503) as well as general Anti Money Laundering and Know Your Customer industry standards. This stage of the process allows Lendermarket to get comfortable with who the Loan Originator is, their team, and how they operate.
Financial Due Diligence
During this stage, Lendermarket inspects the Loan Originator’s financial situation. Several things are evaluated including: the company’s financial statements, their loan portfolio and satisfaction with the company’s risk and FX hedging policies. This stage is to ensure we are aware of and comfortable with the Loan Originator’s financial situation.
Legal Agreements
After the company/ legal and financial due diligence procedures are completed, and Lendermarket is satisfied with moving forward, legal agreements are drawn up. These agreements include setting covenants and finalising terms and conditions that must be met while the Loan Originator receives funding from Lendermarket’s investments. Loan Originators must agree to the same platform rules that all investors are required to.
On-going Monitoring
Lendermarket reviews the Loan Originators’ financial statements on a quarterly basis, as well as routinely reviewing covenants and the performance of Loan Originators’ loan portfolios. This is to ensure that standards are continually met and maintained over the course of the relationship with Loan Originators. Lendermarket has recently undertaken increased monitoring so that we can assign a risk score to each Loan Originator on the platform. This risk scoring includes four categories; transparency, legal, financial and transactional. Risk scores will be published for each Loan Originator in the next few weeks and will be routinely reviewed and updated.
Bottom line
Due Diligence is a mandatory step in welcoming a new Loan originator to the Lendermarket platform. It is important to analyse a potential Loan Originator to ensure the creditworthiness of their loans as investments on Lendermarket. We hope the article answers your questions about the Due Diligence process. If not, please share your questions in the comments section!