Landbay Joins Council of Mortgage Lenders

Landbay continues to take steps to make its peer-to-peer buy-to-let mortgage as airtight as possible.

The nascent but high growth Landbay has become the first peer-to-peer lender to become a full member of the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). The platform has been lobbying hard to enter into the organisation. The CML is the UK mortgage lending market’s principle trade body, with 132 full members, 8 third party administrator members and 84 associate members (one of which is LendInvest). Between them these institutions cover 95% of the residential mortgage lending market in the UK, meaning the voice of the CML is an important one in Government led policy consultations. The CML is also active in lobbying the government for changes to existing policy.

John Goodall, CEO of Landbay, commented:

“While our business model is highly innovative, our approach to mortgage lending standards are founded upon industry expertise. The CML provides a fantastic network and resource for us to use in fortifying our lending processes as our lending picks up pace.”

Landbay has shown great commitment to building a highly transparent and resilient peer-to-peer model. The platform has stressed tested its loan book under severe conditions – twice, has launched a UK rental index, has published its full loan book online (complete with rates paid by the borrower) and has appointed a slew of mortgage industry veterans to its management team. Becoming a member of the CML is another step in this process of – to borrow from Goodall’s lexicon – “fortification”. The platform is already a member of the UK peer-to-peer lending sector's major trade body, the P2PFA. 

Landbay has also been able to grow at a rapid rate since launching in April 2014. The platform boasts a cumulative lending volume of £11.5m, with a little under £10m lent in 2015 alone, according to the Liberum AltFi Volume Index UK. The platform secured a £250m wholesale funding line from an unnamed UK bank and a European asset manager in April, and expects to have deployed the full amount by around September-time next year.

Paul Clampin, who became Landbay’s Chief Lending Officer in September, commented on Landbay’s CML membership:

“We are looking forward to being involved in the effective work the CML conducts with the government. We are already doing this on the peer-to-peer side of our business via the P2PFA and we are excited to play a tangible role in the development of future changes to mortgage legislation.”