By Gareth Vaughan
New Zealand Manufacturers and Exporters Association (NZMEA) CEO John Walley is fronting an application for both a peer-to-peer lending and a crowd funding licence.
The Christchurch-based Walley told interest.co.nz Lendit Ltd, a company of which he's the sole director, has lodged applications for both a peer-to-peer licence and a crowd sourcing licence with the Financial Markets Authority (FMA). Entrepreneur Selwyn Pellett is listed alongside Walley and others as a Lendit shareholder.
Walley says Lendit is a private venture and nothing to do with the NZMEA.
"Essentially peer-to-peer lending is not going to be a massive money maker," says Walley. "And I have to admit I got into this when I was really pissed off with the banks."
"I actually had a platform live in 2009 and was told to take it down because the Securities Commission thought that securities legislation applied. I said 'it's consumer credit' and they said 'no it isn't, shut it down'."
"Essentially it's a way of lubricating that lending and borrowing market in the personal space. Equally it's a lead in to small amounts of equity funding. So I actually see peer-to-peer as the doorway into equity investment. And that's really needed in New Zealand, particularly at the low end," says Walley.
Lendit plans to support peer-to-peer lending, crowd funding for equity, transactional crowd funding, and include a mechanism on its platform allowing charities to collect donations at no cost.
Elaine Campbell, the FMA's head of compliance, recently told interest.co.nz the regulator expects four applications for peer-to-peer licences under the newly enacted Financial Markets Conduct Act.
A second peer-to-peer licence application will be from an Auckland based company called Harmoney. Its sole director and controlling shareholder is Neil Roberts, a former general manager at Pacific Retail Finance, and ex-head of sales and business development at Flexigroup Ltd in Australia.
Harmoney describes itself as a start up with international aspirations that's looking to challenge banks and finance companies, using technology and operational knowledge from 10 years of New Zealand and Australian consumer finance experience.
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