At rebuildingsociety.com, we are always looking for smart ways to improve our processes in order to help our lenders and borrowers. We have made several changes this year, and as such, we decided to revisit our How to Get Your Loan Approved and Funded blog post from January this year. Here, we take you through the three steps of the process: fulfilling criteria, your application going live, and a loan being fully funded. You can also see our loan funded flowchart for a visual overview of the process.

Fulfilling Criteria

Our Basic Criteria

We request that applicants fulfil some basic criteria. We require that:

1. The applicants be Limited Companies, LLPs, PLCs or social enterprises.
2. Companies provide at least two years trading and filed accounts. (If you are a recently incorporated Ltd. Company with a trading history as a different entity such as a sole trader then you may still be eligible.)
3. Companies have no outstanding CCJs.
4. Directors/Partners are UK residents.
5. Turnover is greater than £150k. (We will also consider businesses that are on course to meet this requirement in the current financial year).

If you meet these criteria, we would love to receive an application from you. You can find our application form online here. On average, it takes less than 10 minutes to complete our application. Watch our Application Walkthrough video for a step-by-step guide. And, if you have any questions or require any help with submitting an application, you can reach us on 0113 815 0244 or at apps@rebuildingsociety.com.

Documents Required

Our assessment of the business consists of two stages: a financial review and a security review. The financial review will enable us to give you a quote and a starting rate for the loan. The security review will allow us to assess the eligibility of the security and confirm any discount that will be due. Information required for financial review:

1. Filed accounts of the last two years
2. Up-to-date VAT returns since last filed accounts OR management accounts, including balance sheet and P+L, to within 60 days of the application
3. Business bank statement for the last three months
4. Details of any existing borrowing, including providers, monthly repayments and amounts outstanding

Information required for security review:

1. Completed Statements of Assets and Liabilities for all directors
2. Personal Credit Report for all directors (this can be obtained for free from noddle.co.uk)

Underwriter’s Questions

During the assessment process, our underwriters may have some questions, which they will raise via the listing discussion forum. You will receive an email notification when any questions are posted. To respond to these questions, simply log in and reply directly to the underwriter. Any pertinent topics will be left visible for our lenders once the loan goes live. Any information provided which is sensitive or not directly relevant for the lenders will be removed before listing. Once your application is approved by the underwriters, you will need to review and approve the listing before it goes live. Reviewing the listing gives you a chance to make any changes to the listing blurb before it goes live and is viewed by potential lenders. As the listing is the first thing potential lenders will see about your business, it is always beneficial to make sure that it contains sufficient detail. You want to give a true and fair picture of your business, what you need the loan for and why lenders should invest. We also have the capacity to upload any pictures, files or embedded videos that you would like lenders to see, so you may wish to include some of the following:

1. Business plan
2. Introductory video
3. Cash flow forecasts
4. Asset valuations/property valuations
5. Promotional pictures

Security Discount

Before your loan goes live, you may wish to consider the security you have offered. Well-secured loans attract lower final rates, fund faster and may also qualify for a discount on the starting rate of up to 5%. You can find out more here.

Your Application is LIVE!

Once you have approved the listing, we will email you to let you know that the loan is now live on our site and attracting bids. It is good practice at this initial stage to add an introductory message on the discussion board to introduce yourself, so that the lenders are familiar with who they are directing their questions to. Once the loan goes live, you will be asked questions by potential lenders. The answers you give will often dictate whether they decide to invest or not, so it is important that you ensure that you answer these in as much detail and as promptly as possible. By subscribing to the listing discussion forum, you will be automatically notified via email each time a new question or reply is posted on your listing. You can also visit the site to engage with lenders at any time. Our lender base is comprised of a wide cross-section of individuals of various ages, demographics, professions and business experience. Applicants have found this stage of the process to be a valuable opportunity to get the most out of the P2P lending experience, by engaging with potential customers and potential new business contacts, and gaining a number of potential new stakeholders with a vested interest in seeing their business succeed. Building a good rapport with our lending community from the start of the application will likely see the application fund quicker and at a better rate.

Your Loan Has Been Fully Funded

The day after the auction closes, we will send you a completion email which will lay out the steps you need to follow before we can release the funds. This email will contain:

1. A confirmation of the final interest rate and a breakdown of fees and funds
2. A step-by-step guide on how to complete the online loan acceptance process
3. The legal documentation for the loan (e.g. Loan Agreement, Personal Guarantee)
4. Details of the ID, bank statements, additional contact details and security documents that we require.

We try to make the completion email as easy to follow as possible. However, if you do need any additional assistance with any part of this process, we’re always available to provide guidance, so please get in touch via telephone or email, on 0113 815 0244 or at apps@rebuildingsociety.com. Once you have completed all of the steps and posted the completion documents back to us, you just need to wait for us to confirm the transfer. Once our team has reviewed the submissions, we will be in touch to let you know that we have authorised the transfer. For more information about P2P lending, read our recent articles about Platform vs Lender Responsibilities, Key Risks and Private Peer Loans.