At a time when everything seems up in the air and unfamiliar, as we all get used to the current restrictions on our movement and changes to our everyday lives, we’re trying to ensure that rebuildingsociety.com operates as normal for all our stakeholders; borrowers, lenders and brokers.
As a Team
Our team are used to working remotely from many of their colleagues, with a number of our team members having had the option to work from home permanently or a few times a week, for years. As such our systems are well set up to deal with the current work from home restrictions. Allowing us to continue working almost as efficiently as before, with calls still being answered, bank transactions being processed and loans completing just as before.
Funds into the platform continue to remain at normal levels, with a number of people still continuing to transfer in ISA funds and trade on the secondary market.
Staying Connected with Borrowers
It’s clear to see that one of the biggest potential long-term impacts of the corona virus will be seen by the country's small and medium sized businesses, that are being forced to shut their doors, operate at reduced staff capacity and generally make fundamental changes to their business plans and operations.
We’ve been contacting all existing borrowers asking them for updates on how they are being affected and also reaching out, offering support in terms of helping them get access to the various grants and relief loans the government has put in place.
Where we’ve been able to get in touch with the business, we’ve updated the ‘Loan Updates’ section of each loan profile. You can access these via your dashboard. Feel free to send the directors messages of support and encouragement via the discussion forums.
Rick Hyland, our Business Development and Operations Manager is leading and coordinating the task of speaking to each of our existing business owners. Whilst the team are still working their way through the list Rick says:
"We’ve spoken to businesses across the country and generally I'd say there's an overall sense of positivity helped by the government response to the outbreak. Even those that are having to shut up shop (literally) are feeling like there is a plan and they are applying for help where required.
That being said, as you can imagine there are a few people who are worrying, and are working hard to rejig their business and make ends meet as best they can.
We’ve even seen a number of businesses that have strong cash reserves doing their bit to help others in their community, such as one borrower that’s offering some of their tenants a three-month break on rent."
In addition to reaching out to support our existing borrowers we’re also continuing to review new loan applications, having updated our credit risk process to take into account the current risks.
We’re also in communication with the British Business Bank about potentially offering business interruption loans.
Protecting Lender’s Interests
All loans on our platform are funded by individual lenders and as such we’re reminding borrowers in our interactions with them that, it’s not our money, and that it’s individuals that supported their businesses and might now, themselves need to rely on repayments from the businesses to get by.
As such we’re asking borrowers to prioritise their rebuildingsociety.com repayments where possible. That being said, whilst businesses try and access grants and other relief funds where needed, many might request repayment holidays and / or interest only repayments. Where businesses do request these, we’ll be reviewing each request individually and communicating these to you on a loan by loan basis. These updates can also be accessed via your dashboard.
During this time we’re also rewarding lenders for supporting UK businesses by offering them additional cashback on all bids made via the primary marketplace, meaning that they will be earning from the moment they bid. More about this cashback offer can be found on https://www.rebuildingsociety.com/2020-lender-bonus-incentive/
