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Post by transo on Apr 28, 2014 22:53:12 GMT
I know many of us here think FC's bad debt record on A+ loans is worse than their estimated bad debt rate implies. However it appears FC may have changed their estimate. Looking at the stats page tonight I noticed: % | A+ | A | B | C | C- | Total | Current bad debt | 0.9% | 0.9% | 2.2% | 1.4% | 1.7% | 1.4% | Estimated lifetime bad debt | 3.3% | 3.0% | 4.6% | 6.6% | 10.6% | 4.8% |
That estimated lifetime bad debt figure on A+ loans looks to be a huge jump. I last noticed it when I ran my stochastic projection of my returns in in early March, when the estimated lifetime bad debt of A+ loans was only 1.2%, having gradually crept up from 1% in November 2012. The other rates don't appear to have changed much. Interestingly the explanatory text states that the table shows that "for every £1000 of A+ loans we estimate that there will be about £30 of bad debts over the life of the loans", which is much higher than previous estimates but very approximate maths. However further down the page the estimated annual bad debt rates haven't changed at all from their original values, still 0.6% for A+. I can't believe that the estimated lifetime bad debt rate on A+ loans can almost triple without any impact on the annualised rate, despite the (well document on another thread) difficulties in working out how FC got from one to the other. Meanwhile I'm upping my minimum bid rate on A+, again.
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jm72
Posts: 109
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Post by jm72 on Apr 29, 2014 11:44:01 GMT
I saw this as well and was trying to work out how a 3.3% overall lifetime debt could translate to 0.6% per year. Even assuming that all loans are 5 years, 0.6% per year compounded only comes to 3%. One possible explanation is that the 0.6% includes an estimate of recoveries and the 3.3% doesn't - but then it doesn't make sense to present two figures with different bases pretty much next to each other!
Another is that the 0.6% is applied to the simple interest rate which is the basis for bidding, whereas the 3.3% is an actual compound figure - I haven't been able to think through whether this would equate the numbers - but it still seems wrong.
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Post by transo on Apr 29, 2014 19:48:20 GMT
Well tonight it looks like A+ loans have magically become less risky, their lifetime risk is now back at 1.2%. I sent a query to FC yesterday to enquire what had changed and will report back if/when I get an answer.
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blender
Member of DD Central
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Post by blender on Apr 29, 2014 20:33:25 GMT
But why in the example is the loss from £1000 of loan only £10 rather than £12?
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Post by transo on May 6, 2014 17:34:23 GMT
I've now had a reply from FC to my enquiry about this sudden change. They assure me (I wouldn't say reassure!) that this was due to a "technical error", "causing an incorrect figure to be displayed". Apparently their credit analysis team retain their lifetime bad debt estimate for A+ debt at 1.2%.
No answer on my secondary query of how the lifetime bad debt estimate has increased from 0.9% to 1.2% without any change in the expected annualised rate, although that level of increase is I guess plausible given an increasing trend in the average loan period of FC loans (as 48 and 60 month loans weren't originally available) and some fiddling with assumptions on how far through loans losses will occur.
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