Rebuildingsociety.com

rebuildingsociety.com is a peer to peer lending platform, that connects businesses looking for commercial finance with individuals looking to lend money to businesses at interest rates determined by the lenders.
System
The platform operates by allowing businesses that meet the company's risk criteria to publish their loan application onto the website, where a multitude of lenders can bid to lend money to the business as part of a syndicate of lenders. The lenders, after assessing the company’s information, commit an amount of their choice, with an interest rate of their choice. The platform then compiles the subscriptions to offer the borrower the aggregated rate across all bids. At the end of the auction period, the bids with the highest interest rates are left out. The loans are repaid over 1-5 years.
The platform also operates a “second hand” micro loans market, where lenders can buy and sell active loan parts, allowing them to gain instant exposure to their desired business or sector or access their funds before the loan matures.
Typical loan parts are between £20 and £250. The same lender may acquire several parts of the same loan, both at the primary offering and the second hand market.
History
Rebuilding Society was started in 2012 after extensive development by internet entrepreneur and Director of Web-Translations Limited, Daniel Rajkumar and finance veteran Gary Lumby MBE.
Among the key distinguishing factors of rebuildingsociety.com is the trust points system which allocates a portion of the dividends to the users by encouraging responsible risk management and social engagement as well as charitable organisations.
The company criticized the Government's decision to lend through established peer-to-peer lending platforms after the announcement that £20m would be loaned through Funding Circle to businesses in the UK.
Returns
Because lenders choose which businesses and at what rate they lend, returns vary. However, most lenders offer to lend at an average return of 12.5 per cent gross.
Risk and regulation
As with other lending sites, including Zopa, RateSetter, Funding Circle and FundingKnight if a borrower fails to fully repay the loan then the lender risks losing part of his or her return. To mitigate this, users are encouraged to lend to lots of businesses and to give careful consideration to each company.
rebuildingsociety.com uses similar credit checks to what banks use, including credit checking each business through Experian and splitting businesses into four risk bands (A+, A, B and C). If a business defaults, rebuildingsociety.com will pursue the business owner to recover the remaining part of the loan.
The Financial Conduct Authority will regulate the peer-to-peer lending market from 2014, a move supported by many operators in the market.

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