AuxMoney: Peer to Peer Lending

10 March 2016

Peer-to-peer lending is a new term for me since it does not exist back in my country, Indonesia. As someone studying MSc Banking and Risk, I was really curious and wished to know more about how this type of lending works; especially because it is a growing market in the UK and also other European countries. That’s why, when I received an email from the Student Development Team about Career Lounge with Guest Speaker from AuxMoney, a German peer-to-peer lending company, I immediately signed up and secured my place.

We were very fortunate to have Justin Silk, the Head of Risk Management at Auxmoney, who came down from Germany to spend time to talk with some students in the University of Edinburgh. Held at the Business School Roof Terrace, this event was limited to only 12 students, for better interaction with the guest speaker. The Career Lounge was designed to be an interactive session, in an informal and relaxed atmosphere, to enable us to ask questions and learn the most from the speaker.

Justin started the session by explaining about AuxMoney and what is peer-to-peer lending. In principal, borrowers apply for the loan on-line, and which is categorised into different risk profiles, to determine the level of interest.

On the other hand, lenders can select which type of borrowers that they want to fund; which comes with the corresponding level of return that they will obtain. AuxMoney even enables individual investors to make contact with the prospective borrowers, to get the level of comfort in lending the money.

When asked about how AuxMoney manages the higher risk compared with the conventional banks, Justin explained the efforts made by AuxMoney to reduce the possibility of customer default, which begins from application screening. Applicant behaviour is observed, even from the way they fill in the loan application online. Many aspects of the company were discussed during this session, including how the company advertises its products to gain better awareness from customers.

Not only about AuxMoney, we also learned many things from Justin’s professional experience in Risk Management and related areas. He shared about the challenges that he had during his 18 years career journey, how he survived many ups and downs of the banking industry, and also the success tips for us who will soon enter the industry.

The scheduled one-hour meeting ended up to be a two-hours chat. Justin patiently answered our questions and encouraged us to find out more from him. It was a well-spent morning, I obtained new knowledge and also new perspective about banking industry. For me, attending Career Lounge is an investment in which I can get valuable insight from every session, since each person’s experience is unique and worth learning from.

The opportunity to network with Justin Silk and AuxMoney does not stop here. The Student Development Team has facilitated two projects for Company Sponsored Dissertation with AuxMoney. Two short-listed students will have the privilege to work on real cases faced by AuxMoney and to propose solutions to the management team.

Right from the first day we started the course, the Student Development Team has offered many good opportunities for the students to develop and build networks with industry practitioners.

Being proactive and actively engaged in Student Development events has better prepared me for my next career journey.

Merry Christianti, MSc Banking & Risk