Short term lender, Mayfair Bridging, has warned that all possible precautions must be taken to protect investors in peer to peer lending schemes.

Mayfair Bridging launched its own UCIS investment scheme as part of its new peer to peer offering in December and believes the peer to peer market must evolve in the way it structures its offerings to better serve the interests of investors, particularly through the use of insurance against potential fraud or negligence.

Shoaib Bux, director at Mayfair Bridging said: “At a time when investors are looking for better returns than those being offered by conventional investment vehicles, it is incumbent on peer to peer businesses involved in lending to individuals (using property as security), to offer not only good returns but also make every effort to minimise risk for the investor where they can.

“That is why, on top of the control we offer investors to choose the investments they want to make as well as encouraging their own due diligence on potential cases, we have invested in comprehensive insurance to supplement our own stringent underwriting of every case. This provides investors with an important extra layer of protection to cover against identity and borrower fraud, as well as title defects, deficiencies in property searches and solicitor negligence.

“In designing our scheme, we have placed the highest priority on offering investors great returns while not skimping on measures to supplement our already vigorous and robust underwriting. Taking the precautions we have, shows the way that peer to peer offerings can meet the requirements of today’s investor.”