About the Association

Why the Association exists

The Private Lending Association of South Africa exists to make private lending easier to understand, safer to explore and more transparent to participate in.

We publish plain-English education, develop practical market standards and provide structured verification for the professionals and organisations operating in the private-lending ecosystem.

The Association does not provide financial advice, arrange loans, accept deposits or guarantee private-lending opportunities.

The reason is simple enough. Private lending in South Africa is explained badly. It is either dressed up as a way to get rich, or buried in product documentation that answers every question except the ones a reader actually has: who is borrowing my money, what stands behind it, what happens if they do not pay, and when do I get it back. Somebody has to publish the third version — accurate, sourced, specific to South African law and practice, and useful whether or not the reader ever places a rand.

What the Association does

• Explains private lending in plain English, for a South African reader.
• Maintains the terminology the sector uses loosely, in a public glossary.
• Publishes risk and scam education, including the red flags that precede most avoidable losses.
• Publishes standards and a code of conduct for organisations and practitioners.
• Operates a verification methodology and publishes the resulting records — including what was not checked.
• Maintains public registers of organisations and practitioners.
• Keeps a dated record of who wrote what and when it was last reviewed.

What the Association is not

The longer-term ambition is for the Association to become the recognised source of truth for private lending in South Africa, with the governance that such a claim requires. That is an ambition, not a current status. What has to exist before more is claimed is listed, with nothing ticked off that has not been done, on the governance page.

Who it is written for

Individuals, companies and trusts weighing whether to put their own capital into structured private-lending arrangements — and the accountants, advisers, practitioners and journalists who get asked about it. Existing private lenders who want to understand what they already hold are squarely in scope.

It is deliberately not written for someone wanting to start a payday-loan business, register as a micro-lender, run an unsecured consumer-credit operation or lend small amounts to people who are already financially stretched. Those are different activities with different law, different duties and different consequences, and material written for one is misleading when read as though it applied to the other.

Our relationship with ProLend

ProLend provided the initial support required to establish the Association and serves as its Founding Gold Partner. This relationship is disclosed publicly. The Association’s educational content, partner criteria and verification methodology are published so that users can understand how information and participation decisions are made.

In practice that means three things. Editorial decisions are currently made by Wesley Thomson in his capacity as Association editor; he is also Managing Partner of ProLend, and that conflict is disclosed. ProLend has no separate editorial approval or veto, but the Association does not claim full editorial independence during its founding phase. Its partnership tier gives it no standing in verification — its record shows Verification Pending, like every other. And the Association receives no commission, referral fee or payment of any kind for an enquiry, introduction or placement.

ProLend has a partner profile here like any other organisation, setting out what it does, what it does not do, who administers the arrangements it distributes, and what has and has not been checked.

How the Association is funded

By ProLend, as Founding Gold Partner. The site carries no advertising, sells nothing, charges nothing for a listing and receives no payment for an introduction. There is no arrangement under which coverage, inclusion or favourable treatment can be bought. The commercial separation this depends on is set out in the editorial policy, and the test applied to every page is whether it would still be credible with ProLend’s name removed.

A funding base that does not depend on a single partner is one of the items on the governance list, and it has not been done.

Who writes it

Wes Thomson — Editor, Private Lending Association of South Africa. Wes Thomson edits the Association's material and writes most of it. He came to private lending through risk management rather than through sales, and writes about structure, security and failure modes first — on the view that a reader who understands the mechanics and decides the asset class is not for them has been served properly.

Disclosure: The author is Managing Partner of ProLend, the commercial private-lending platform that supported the establishment of the Association and is its Founding Gold Partner. That interest is disclosed on every article he writes.

Contact

General enquiries: info@privatelendingassociation.co.za. Corrections and editorial matters: editor@privatelendingassociation.co.za. Complaints about a listed organisation or practitioner: complaints@privatelendingassociation.co.za, and the complaints page explains what the Association can and cannot do about them.

ProLend is published at pro-lend.co.za. It is a separate organisation with a separate purpose; the two are related entities, not the same entity.

Common questions

What is the Private Lending Association of South Africa?

An educational body for private lending in South Africa. It publishes plain-English education, develops practical market standards and provides structured verification for the professionals and organisations operating in the private-lending ecosystem. It is not a regulator, a government body, a financial adviser or a lender, and it does not arrange loans, accept deposits or guarantee any opportunity.

Is the Association a regulator or a statutory body?

No. It has no statutory powers, grants no licences and approves no products. Regulation of credit providers sits with the National Credit Regulator, financial advice with the Financial Sector Conduct Authority, and banking with the South African Reserve Bank. The Association publishes education and standards, and points readers at those bodies where they are the ones that matter.

Who funds the Association?

ProLend, its Founding Gold Partner, which provided the support required to establish it. The site carries no advertising, sells nothing, charges nothing for a listing and receives no commission or referral fee for an introduction. That relationship is disclosed here, on the governance page and on every partner page.

Is the Association independent?

Not yet, and it does not claim to be. It was established with ProLend's support and the editor of its material is ProLend's Managing Partner. The governance page sets out exactly what has to exist before independence is claimed — a constitution, an independent review capacity, a published conflicts register, a funding base beyond one partner, and a complaints decision-maker who is not the editor.