Growth Street joins FCA register, opens to individual investors

Alternative overdraft platform now registered with regulator as appointed representative.

Growth Street, a marketplace lending platform for business loans, has secured appointed representative status, thanks to a partnership with Resolution Compliance Limited. The partnership allows Growth Street to open up the platform to individual investors immediately, where previously its loans could only be invested in by other businesses.

Growth Street’s core product offering for borrowers is an secured credit facility, which the company says is designed to provide better credit terms at fairer prices. Growth Street has fervently campaigned for the widespread publication of APRs among small business lenders since launching in 2015.

For investors, Growth Street offers gross interest rates of up to 6.5 per cent annual equivalent rate. This assumes that investor cash is invested for a year, with interest reinvested.

New investors on the platform could stand to benefit from a £100 welcome bonus, if they tie up a minimum of £1k for at least 1 year. Growth Street has also incorporated a protection fund into its offering, and suggests that investors can withdraw funds at 30 days’ notice.

“Becoming an Appointed Representative is an important step in the regulatory journey for Growth Street,” said James Sherwin-Smith (pictured above), CEO of Growth Street. “While we continue with our application to be a regulated firm in our own right, by acting as an Appointed Representative of Resolution Compliance we can increase our regulatory experience by working alongside a partner that has one of the strongest track records in an otherwise immature industry.”

The vast majority of peer-to-peer lenders currently operate under interim permission, while they continue to await full authorisation from the FCA. But more recently launched firms, like Growth Street, effectively missed the boat on the interim permissions regime, and have thus been forced to come up with alternative routes to market.

Resolution Compliance Limited holds full permission to operate an electronic system for lending, and is also able to confer that permission onto carefully selected representatives. The company has supported several firms that now hold full permission, but has also turned away more than 60 would-be appointed representatives.

“We’re pleased to welcome Growth Street to the network and further facilitate the growth of the peer-to-peer lending industry,” said James Dingwall, group CEO for Resolution Compliance.