Author
Wesley Thomson
Editor of the Private Lending Association of South Africa. This page exists so that a reader can see who wrote the material, what he knows, and what interest he holds in the market he writes about.
Role
Editor, Private Lending Association of South Africa. He writes and maintains the Association’s educational material, the standards and the verification methodology, and is responsible for corrections under the editorial policy. He is a founding member of the Association in his individual capacity.
Interest and conflict disclosure
Disclosed on every article
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.
Editorial decisions are currently made by Wesley Thomson in his capacity as Association editor. ProLend holds no separate editorial approval or veto, but the Association does not claim full editorial independence during its founding phase. The governance page records what remains outstanding before it does.
Background
Wesley 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.
He came to the subject through risk management rather than through sales: five years as a British Royal Marine Commando, work as a medic and in security risk management across India, Djibouti and Dubai, and then business management consultancy. He founded an international conservation charity in 2016 and ran it for four years before returning to company management, and now manages several companies in South Africa and the United Kingdom.
Qualifications
| Qualification | Institution |
|---|---|
| MSc, Security Management | University of Portsmouth |
| Diploma, Risk Management | Recorded on his professional profile |
These are management and risk qualifications, not financial, legal or tax credentials. Nothing on this site is financial, legal or tax advice, and the author is not authorised to provide regulated financial advice or intermediary services.
Written and edited
The complete guide to private lending in South Africa
The whole subject in sequence, with each part linking to the page that treats it in depth.
Reviewed 17 September 2026FoundationsWhat is private lending?
A working definition, the four things the term is used to mean, and the lending-versus-investing distinction.
Reviewed 17 September 2026MechanicsHow private lending works
The parties, the paperwork, the pricing and the path capital takes on the way out and on the way back.
Reviewed 17 September 2026Becoming a lenderBecoming a private lender in South Africa
Eligibility, entity choice, capital, tax treatment, documentation and a pre-commitment checklist.
Reviewed 17 September 2026RiskRisk, security and repayment
Forms of security, the risk register in full, recovery in practice, and the warning signs of an arrangement to avoid.
Reviewed 17 September 2026ComparisonsPrivate lending compared with a fixed deposit
Nine points of comparison, including deposit insurance, liquidity and what the extra yield is compensating you for.
Reviewed 17 September 2026ComparisonsLocal and offshore private lending compared
Pricing, term, currency, exchange control and tax — set side by side, with the risks unique to each.
Reviewed 17 September 2026StandardsVerification methodology
What is checked, what the evidence is, what each status means, and an explicit list of what verification does not.
Reviewed 17 September 2026RiskRisk and red flags
The warning signs, the pressure tactics, the ten-minute checks anyone can run, and where to report an arrangement that is wrong.
Reviewed 17 September 2026Contact and corrections
Corrections to anything he has written go to editor@privatelendingassociation.co.za and are handled under the editorial policy. ProLend, where his commercial interest lies, is published at pro-lend.co.za and has a partner profile here.
Profile last reviewed 17 September 2026.