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How to Get Funding in England?

July 26, 2014 — New York, NY

How to get funding in England?  Funding for Lending (FLS), the Bank of England and Treasury scheme, initially to boost bank lending to households and companies, opened for business at the beginning of August 2012.

The aim of the scheme was to increase bank lending by up to £70bn.

The government changed the rules in January 2014, with this type of funding is no longer used to support mortgage lending.  The scheme aimed to bolster the economy, by halting a downward spiral of lending and borrowing that the UK had experienced since the onset of the credit crunch and international banking crisis.

Banks and building societies are able to access the funds until the end of January 2015.

How does it work?

In essence, the Bank of England is letting commercial banks borrow funds from it cheaply, so that the banks then pass this on in the form of cheap loans to firms.

What is the point?

The point is to encourage the UK’s commercial banks to borrow more money, and more cheaply than at present, so they can then in turn lend it to companies who wish to borrow.

Is it working?

The debate is fierce. Some report banks are still unwilling to lend to business. Others say businesses are unwilling to take on new debt and are paying back loans. Either way, repayments are rising faster than borrowing, leaving the latest “net” lending figure (for the first quarter of 2014) down.

So what are the mechanics of FLS?

Banks and other lenders approach the Bank of England, if they want. They swap assets they already have, such as loans, with the Bank. It in turn provides them with pieces of paper known as Treasury bills, for a four-year period.

The commercial banks are then able to use these bits of paper as top quality backing with which to borrow cash in the wholesale financial markets, from other lenders. With the Treasury’s backing, the idea is that they will be able to borrow funds at very cheap rates.

How will the taxpayer be protected in this arrangement?

The collateral pledged by commercial banks will have to be worth more than the high-grade paper being offered by the Bank of England. So, for every £1 of Treasury bills they borrow, the assets being pledged will have to be worth, say, £1.10 or £1.20. Thus if the value of that asset subsequently falls, the Bank of England will not suffer from the top slice of any loss.

What about savers?

They have suffered an unforeseen knock-on effect of FLS. The availability of cheap funds from the Bank means that lenders do not need to try so hard to attract funds from the general public, to then lend on to borrowers. That is why it is now almost impossible to find a savings account offering more than 3% interest.

 

Japan Advancing in Crowdfunding

July 27, 2014 — New York, NY

When microbrewery owner Saburo Setsuda needed to replace a bottling machine last year, his bank said no to loan but introduced him to a Tokyo firm that helped him raise funds online.

In January, the first time Mr. Setsuda tried crowdfunding, which lets Internet users put money toward projects or companies in return for a cut of profits, he raised nearly ¥4 million in just 18 hours. The funds went for a new bottling machine to pack beer flavors like blueberry and brews made from hot-spring water from this area in central Japan. The second time, in March, he raised ¥1.2 million for a refrigerator.

In May, lawmakers passed legislation in Japan—similar to the U.S. JOBS Act (Jumpstart Our Business Startups), which increases the number of investors a private firm may have—to make it easier for companies to provide these services online.

When crowdfunding emerged, after the 2008 financial crisis, many investors simply used crowdfunding sites to donate a couple of hundred dollars to projects they found worthy. Now, more are showing interest in platforms that give participants a return on their money.

In Japan, where Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is trying to jump-start economic activity, politicians have viewed crowdfunding as a way to nudge some of the trillions of yen in household savings out of low-yielding deposits and into the hands of entrepreneurs.

In May, lawmakers passed legislation—similar to the U.S. JOBS Act (Jumpstart Our Business Startups), which increases the number of investors a private firm may have—to make it easier for companies to provide these services online.

Just over half of the ¥1.6 quadrillion ($15.7 trillion) in Japanese household assets are in cash or at banks. Only 11% is in stocks or bonds, compared with 42% in the U.S. and 23% in Europe, according to the Bank of Japan.

Meanwhile, strict regulations keep banks from extending credit to some firms, which may have a good business idea but other issues, such as debt, that prevent lenders from funding them. Banks are lending out less than 70% of the deposits they hold.

Normally, that is where venture capital might step in, but economists say Japanese firms tapping crowdfunding often prefer to remain relatively small, and aren’t looking for Silicon Valley-style backing, which tends to be aimed at companies targeting large-scale growth.

Crowdfunding is still small in Japan, estimated at ¥8.2 billion, or $80 million. Meanwhile, the global market, which was less than $1 billion in 2010, was estimated to reach $5.1 billion in 2013, with the North American market accounting for $3.7 billion, according to a report the research firm Massolution published in April last year.

In Japan, the most well-known crowdfunding companies offer investors annual returns ranging from 2% to 10%, with the average at 5%. Investors are repaid over a few months, or as much as a few years. They run the risk of not being paid at all if the company they are backing fails.

Skepticism about promised returns is a hurdle to attracting more investors. After decades of near-zero interest rates on savings deposits, many investors are suspicious of pledges of returns of 4% or 5%.

“Because interest rates have been so low at financial institutions, Japanese people began to believe that interest rates were something supposed to be low,” said Kaz Ohmae, who started the crowdfunding platform Crowdbank.jp in December. “We have to change that perception.”

Crowdbank.jp provides funds to small firms in Japan and overseas and lists an average 5.2% return on its website. In just half a year, the company has received more than ¥650 million in investments for companies it serves and is shooting for ¥10 billion in the next few years, Mr. Ohmae said.

Yasuyuki Yabumoto, a 43-year-old telecom worker with two decades of investment experience, has put ¥1 million in crowdfunding via Mr. Ohmae’s company since April. He is planning to invest more but wants to go slowly.

“At this stage I’m carefully assessing crowdfunding’s risk and return, especially the default rates of companies that receive investments,” said Mr. Yabumoto, who also invests in stocks, currencies and bonds.

Many early-bird crowdfunding investors have prior investment experience. Nanae Obara, who works in the financial industry in Tokyo, said the ¥400,000 she has spent on crowdfunding over the last two years has been a way to diversify her portfolio of stock and investment-trust holdings.

Some politicians have expressed concern about risks, and the law passed earlier this year requires that crowdfunding companies provide adequate information about investments online. Still, there is also optimism that crowdfunding could help individual investors earn more on their savings.

More money flowing to firms in rural Japan could cut their dependence on government subsidies, said former Economy Minister Motohisa Furukawa. Mr. Furukawa helped launch a government debate on crowdfunding after seeing how online fundraising helped companies in areas of northern Japan affected by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disasters.

Rather than feeling threatened by the potential competition from crowdfunding companies, many of Japan’s small lenders are excited.

“There is a lot of need from companies who have good ideas, but not good finances. It seems contradictory, but it’s hard for us to give them money,” said Keishi Furusato, who works in the loan and company-support division at Hida Credit Cooperative, the lender that introduced Mr. Setsuda, the brewer, to crowdfunding.

Though Hida Credit Cooperative doesn’t put up any money in crowdfunding arrangements, the hope is that companies that benefit and thrive will come to them in the future for loans. Mr. Furusato said that three to four other firms in Takayama, a town of 92,000, look likely to start crowdfunding soon.

Dublin Chambers of Commerce calls for Non-banking Financing Solutions for SME’s

July 28, 2014 — New York, NY

The Dublin Chamber of Commerce is calling on the Government to give business owners early access to a portion of their pension funds for the specific purpose of business growth.  It calculates that up to €7.5bn worth of SME financing could be unlocked if this idea was implemented.  It forms part of the Chamber’s Budget submission which they are publishing today. The Chamber says the Government now needs to focus on non-banking financing solutions for SMEs.

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Staying with the enterprise theme and anyone hoping to set up a business might consider going the co-op route. Legislation comes into effect today easing the regulatory burden on co-operative societies and making it easier to set up and run one. Minister for Enterprise Richard Bruton introduced reduced fees for the registration of co-operative societies about a year and a half ago. Among the changes will be an extension of the examinership process to co-ops.

 

Hedge Funds Lend to Companies based in Ireland

July 28, 2014,  New York, NY

By: Kim Wales

The central bank has drawn up new rules for Ireland, one of the biggest hubs for funds in Europe to allow hedge funds based in the country to lend to companies. The regulations  the central bank has drawn will allow specialized loan funds that it authorizes to extend loans internationally.

Lending to households and corporations have been sluggish since the 2008 financial crisis by European banks whom see to continue to increase the requirements to qualify.  Firms who are too small to issue bonds are increasingly seeking to borrow from other sources such as insurers, private equity firms and hedge funds.

Traditionally, Ireland prevented hedge funds domiciled in the country from lending because regulators viewed it as too risky. However, access to credit a growing problem in Europe and across the globe.

Under the rules, a loan fund will not be able to lend more than a quarter of its assets to one borrower and the amount of debt the fund can take on will be capped at a ratio of 1 to 1, meaning that if a fund has assets of 100 million euros it can borrow another 100 million euros.

The central bank issued a consultation paper on the rules on Monday and expects them to be in place by the end of the year.

“In our view this is a sector that should be subject to some additional regulation,” said Martin Moloney, head of markets policy at the Irish central bank.

“If you have loan origination funds operating out of Ireland and lending into other countries there are potential cross border issues. We wanted to deal with that upfront and we have been very focused on the financial stability issues.

The move by the Irish central bank comes as the European Central Bank and the Bank of England are trying to resurrect the European Union’s market for asset-backed securities as a way of getting credit flowing to smaller businesses and plug some of the gap left by banks.