DirectMoney relaunches Personal Loan Fund
Marketplace lender DirectMoney has relaunched the product disclosure statement for its Personal Loan Fund, after taking it off the market late last year.There are several changes in the update. The minimum investment size has come down from A$50,000 to $10,000 and the investment manager has introduced some additional compliance measures.And it now includes an investment return objective. The fund seeks to deliver a consistent return of approximately five per cent to 5.5 per cent over the Reserve Bank cash rate throughout a suggested investment term of three to five years.Distributions, which are not guaranteed, are paid monthly.DirectMoney retains a portion of monthly interest payments to go into a reserve account, which will be used to cover shortfalls arising from delinquencies. The size of the reserve account is based on the expected loan loss rate, which has not been disclosed.The Personal Loan Fund was first launched in May last year as a pooled fund vehicle for small investors to invest in DirectMoney loans. The company disclosed in October that the prospectus had been taken off the market for revision.The fund invests in a pool of fixed-rate, unsecured personal loans originated by DirectMoney with terms of three or five years. DirectMoney's minimum loan amount is $5000 and the maximum $36,500. The expected average loan size is between $10,000 and $20,000.Investors are not required to invest for a minimum or fixed term. However, DirectMoney has set redemptions to match the structure of the loan book; when investors withdraw from the fund their capital will be repaid in "approximately equal instalments" over 36 months.The revised document provides more details about the DirectMoney group and related entities involved in the management of the loan portfolio. It also provides more detail about the credit assessment and fraud prevention processes.The fund will be subject to an annual independent third party review of the effectiveness of DirectMoney's credit assessment and fraud prevention procedures and a review of delinquent loans.DirectMoney has undertaken to bear the risk of loss resulting from a breach of its credit assessment or fraud prevention procedures.Fees are slightly lower in the latest PDS. They include an annual investment management fee of 1.8 per cent and a fund administration fee of 1.04 per cent.According to DirectMoney's latest investor update, none of the 431 loans written during the current financial year have been written off. Four of the 431 loans had late payments exceeding 30 days as of March 31. Since it launched in October 2014, DirectMoney has written 810 loans worth $15.6 million, with an average interest rate of 12.7 per cent.