18th March 2020
The Crowd2Fund COVID-19 plan covers two areas: A) Business Continuity and B) Economic Impact. We will be doing our utmost to ensure the continued smooth operations and also working with businesses to manage the economic impact of the virus to ensure that investor funds are protected and businesses get through this challenging time, which we hope is temporary.
Business Continuity
We have initiated our business continuity plan which is an FCA regulatory obligation to ensure smooth ongoing platform operations during periods of disruption. The main impact of this is that most team members are now working remotely, as a tech company this is possible. However, additional security measures have been taken to protect personal data. You may experience challenges with phone calls and trying to get through to specific team members because we are not operating a switchboard, therefore please try to contact us via email. The health of our employees is also of significant concern and we will be doing everything to protect them from the virus over the coming weeks.
New daily routines have been set-up between team members to ensure smooth operations. You may experience some minor disruptions however any issues should be kept to a minimum. IFISA transfers may take longer to complete because cheques are still core to this process and need posting manually.
If you have any questions about the operations of the company then please do not hesitate to contact us on info@crowd2fund.com.
Economic Impact
Due to the severe, and hopefully temporary economic impact of the virus we have put in plans to mitigate this through a revised credit policy and contingency plans for businesses who express distress because of the virus. We will be referring businesses who inform us of distress to one of the many government schemes offering temporary credit solutions via the British Business Bank. At least £12b in relief has been arranged by the chancellor which is being deployed via a number of the BBBs partner platforms.
https://www.british-business-bank.co.uk/ourpartners/supporting-business-loans-enterprise-finance-guarantee/
There are many types of relief to support businesses in addition to the loans above that can be found on the government website here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-employers-and-businesses-about-covid-19/covid-19-support-for-businesses
If businesses contact us and express distress due to COVID-19 they will first be referred to one of the above schemes, if in the unlikely event businesses are unable to access relief then we will assess each business on a case by case basis, thoroughly. If businesses require their Crowd2Fund finance to be restructured then we may consider an alternative product which is suitable for businesses who experience fluctuations in revenue.
If businesses progress down this route then they will lose their perfect repayment status, therefore it is strongly advised to seek relief from one of the official government channels. We have modified our credit policy to reflect sectors that may be high risk due to Covid-19 for new businesses going onto the platform.
If you have any questions about the operations of the company then please do not hesitate to contact us on info@crowd2fund.com
There are further updates to follow.
