Funding Societies is first crowdfunder to partner with trustee

FUNDING Societies has become the first and only homegrown peer-to-peer lending company to incorporate a trustee registered with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), which makes for a safer way of undertaking crowdfunding than other similar platforms.

This arrangement pioneered by the company, at just over five months old, offers protection against money laundering, which in turn builds trust between the borrowers and their investors, said Kelvin Teo, its co-founder.

Peer-to-peer lending or crowdfunding has emerged as an easier, faster way for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to take out loans, compared to the traditional route of borrowing from banks. Crowdfunding creates a direct lending relationship between borrowers and their investors.