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All Ratesetter investing accounts to close

Emma Lunn
Written By:
Emma Lunn
Posted:
Updated:
03/02/2021

Metro Bank is purchasing Ratesetter’s loan portfolio in a move that will close down the investing side of the peer-to-peer business.

Thousands of Ratesetter customers waited months for withdrawal requests to be processed by the peer-to-peer lender last year. Many tried to withdraw their cash when the coronavirus pandemic began in March 2020.

But the rate that the withdrawal requests were processed meant many investors feared a wait of a year or more for their money.

Ratesetter says the queue for investment release requests was fully cleared on 19 January 2021, meaning that, in the end, no investor had to wait a year or more for their cash.

The clearing of the investment release requests followed the sale of the RateSetter property finance portfolio to Shawbrook Bank.

Metro Bank has now freed up capital to purchase the remaining consumer loans.

A statement from Ratesetter said: “The portfolio purchase means that all RateSetter investors will receive their money back in full and the investing side of RateSetter will close. In line with our investor terms we are providing two months’ notice of account closure and so this will happen on 2 April 2021.”

Ratesetter investors’ money will be returned to their holding accounts from 2 April 2021, as will money on the market. This process is expected to take five days and invested money will continue to earn interest until then.

Investors will be notified when their money is in their holding account. Once money is in a holding account it can be withdrawn to the investor’s nominated bank account.

Ratesetter ISA investors will need to complete a transfer for their ISA holding account to a new ISA provider to keep their money in the tax-free ISA wrapper. A new ISA provider will be able to arrange the transfer.

Going forward, RateSetter will focus on being “a market-leading consumer lender consistent with Metro Bank’s strategy to grow in consumer finance”.