Plenti Lending Platform markets have been reshaped

The Plenti Lending Platform was launched in late 2014 and has been a huge success, having recently reached $1 billion in loans funded, over $85m in interest paid to investors, and with every investor receiving every amount of principal and interest due. 

With the help of 25,000+ everyday investors, the Plenti Lending Platform has challenged the status quo, given retail investors access to a new asset class, and brought greater efficiency to our financial system. Impressively, the platform has grown to become one of the most successful marketplace lending platforms globally.

Reaching a $1 billion milestone has had us reflect on how we can build on what we have achieved to date, and how we can do more together in the future. 

To make the Plenti Lending Platform even more compelling to both existing investors and potential new investors, we’ve made some changes to simplify and improve the investing experience. 

We're pleased to announce our new, reshaped investment markets. The five previous investment markets have beem simplified to three investment markets, being:

• Flex Market: The 1 Month Rolling market has been renamed the Flex Market. This market will continue to offer an indicative term of 1 month, but will fund loans from 6-24 months in term (a narrower range than the current 6-36 months) 
• Plus Market: The 5 Year Income market has been renamed the Plus Market. This market will fund loans from 3-7 years in term (a wider range than the current 4-5 years)
• Green Market: The National Clean Energy market has been renamed the Green Market. This market will continue to fund loans for cleaner, greener energy products with loan terms of 3-7 years, and will now also fund loans for electric vehicles, energy efficient heating and cooling, and other products that help reduce carbon emissions.
  

Alongside these changes, the 3 Year Income market and the South Australia Renewable Energy market are no longer be available for new lending orders.

Why are we making these changes? 

We want to ensure our platform is as simple to use as possible for our investors. With three distinct investment options, it’s now easier to choose the right options to match the type of investment portfolio you’d like to create. These changes also mean that our retail investors have the opportunity to fund a higher proportion of Plenti’s lending. In addition to simplifying investment options, the updates to our markets aim to improve the market depth and liquidity in the Plus Market, helping to ensure that the Early Access feature is more consistently available to investors wishing to exit their investment before the indicative term.* 

What does this mean for me? 

You can now view and invest in the new markets via your investment portal or the Plenti mobile app.

Any orders that are currently on market will be migrated as follows:

Will anything happen to my existing investments/loans?

No, the changes to markets will only impact the way we match new lending orders to borrowers on the platform. Any existing loans you have will continue to be repaid according to the original terms of the investment. 

Note that Early Access for existing loans has changed slightly. See “Is Early Access eligibility changing?” for more information

What will happen to my open market orders on 21 November?

Any orders that are on market when these changes are made will be migrated as follows: 

Will my reinvestment settings change?

Depending on the market you are directing repayments into, your reinvestments may be redirected to your holding account or continue to be directed into the renamed market. 

Is Early Access eligibility changing?

Your eligibility to use the Early Access feature depends on the market your investment was originally made in and the availability of the Early Access feature, as set out in the PDS.

Following these changes, Early Access for existing investments will be available as follows:

What is the conditional prepayment rate?

Plenti's new retail platform structure enables investors the opportunity to invest in longer loans for terms up to 7 years through the Plus Market.

The Plus Market will match investors with borrowers for loans with a contractual term between 3 and 7 years long. The contractual term may appear to have a high degree of variability however, Plenti has historically experienced prepayment levels which indicate the effective lives of the 7 year loans could be materially lower.

The difference between the contracted life and the effective life of a loan is determined by its prepayments. Plenti customers will typically repay a portion of their loans earlier than expected which reduces the actual life of the loan.

The data shows that 5 year loans have an effective life that is ~12 months longer than the effective life of a 3 year loan. It also shows that 7 year loans have an effective life that is ~8 months longer than the life of a 5 year loan.