Kuflink’s New features for July 2021. Stand Up with CTO
The Kuflink Tech Team has worked diligently to bring new features for July 2021 forward. Together, with your feedback, we are able to fulfil Kuflink’s purpose in ‘Connecting People to Financial Freedom’.
Quote for July 2021
“Mastermind Alliance: The Mastermind principle consists of an alliance of two or more minds working in perfect harmony for the attainment of a common definite objective. No person can become a permanent success without taking others long with them” – 2 of 17 Napoleon Hill’s 17 Principles of Success. (To see previous Napoleon Hill’s 17 Principles of Success please refer to previous CTO blogs).
What’s New or on its way to the Kuflink Platform & Kuflink Mobile APP for July 2021
1) We are now working on a new feature that will allow IF ISA Transfers In to enter into ISA eligible Select Invest Deals – this means clients can decide which ISA eligible Select Invest deals they want their ISA transfer to go into.
2) A new segregated IF-ISA wallet, and SIPP wallet (which also comes with surprise features) – development has started.
3) We are currently testing our payment facility using Open Banking on the investment platform in closed beta mode. This will allow our users to transfer funds to their e-wallet instantly using bank transfer. The facility will be available to our investor community shortly.
4) On the lending arm we are currently building the process, through Open banking, to add an additional layer of borrower verification in real time and building a process to ascertain income vs expenditure for a potential borrower across all accounts. This is a step forward in reducing paperwork and unnecessary communication thereby improving efficiency in the process. All in all we should, in theory, gain access to all necessary information through a simplified online process as opposed to numerous phone calls, email chasers etc.
5) Work on upgrading our proprietary deal risk / pricing tool in our CRM system by connecting to live data feeds, and allowing new fields to better assess the risk and price on deals is continuing. This is especially important in light of economic events like Brexit, the COVID-19 pandemic, and price hikes on raw materials (which will affect development appraisals). We are working with a ‘Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ (‘RICS’) valuer and a seasoned developer / builder (both in our Credit committee), to further enhance the tool’s sensitivity to such events. We envisage to connect this information to our live loans on our platform to provide a timeline of any given loans risk.
6) We are working on upgrading our Dashboard. Live Charts, proprietary budget tools, links to other investments, accrued interest, etc. will be on display in a singular view.
7) Portfolio page will also show which Select Invest deals have been put into the ISA wrapper – development underway.
8) Kuflink responded to an FCA survey on High risk investments (submitted 1st July 2021) – FCA will update the rules at the end of this year.
We have taken the view that developments should not be treated as high risk, as all our development loan deals require a RICS approved valuer to produce a ‘Project monitoring Surveyors’ (PMS) report before each tranche of a loan is drawn. As an aside, we have started working on showing a ‘7 phases of Property Development’ bar which will move as the development continues per tranche. There will also be a guide to property development.
CTO thoughts for July 2021
Every organisation has unexpected chaotic situations. This could be a code release gone wrong, a critical bug in the system, system performance, or any other issue. When leaders enter the meeting, whether virtual or in house, team members expect at the end of the meeting, things will be more clear and there will be a well thought out plan that the team can follow. Our job is to reduce the chaos and bring more clarity. We have to simplify the problem by asking questions. This involves getting to the source of the issue and removing all unnecessary information associated with it. Leaders make the team think, by asking deep and broad questions. We create a small to do list with clear actions and assign owners to the tasks using our tech management system and monitor the progress through the build. At all times, we keep thinking and asking questions, searching for edge cases which will come, but may not be seen at the beginning. Most team members find it easy to incrementally add value once someone has done the initial effort. This means a lot of upfront deep thinking and learning is required before we hand over tasks to the team.
* Capital is at risk and Kuflink is not protected by the FSCS. Past returns should not be used as a guide to future performance. Securing investments against UK property does not guarantee that your investments will be repaid and returns may be delayed. Tax rules apply to IF ISAs and SIPPs and may be subject to change. Kuflink does not offer any financial or tax advice in relation to the investment opportunities that it promotes. Please read our risk statement for full details.
