Wellinghoff joins after a decade at Cabot Credit Management, initially as legal counsel and then as head of legal and regulatory affairs. Since 2012, he has been a special advisor to the board of the Credit Services Association, the trade body for debt recovery agencies and allied professional credit services. He is a regulatory mentor to fintech start-ups participating in Barclays’ accelerator programme and acts as legal and regulatory mentor for fintech firm CommuterClub.

In his new role, Wellinghoff is responsible for leading the compliance function, setting and maintaining LendInvest’s compliance and risk management strategy. He will also sit on LendInvest’s governance committee for compliance and risk.

“At LendInvest we are very serious about lending responsibly and meeting our obligations to investors, as we build our financial services franchise. Willem has an impeccable compliance pedigree, and is the perfect person to fill this crucial role,” said Christian Faes, co-founder and chief executive of LendInvest.

Willem will be based at LendInvest’s London headquarters, where the company says staff numbers have risen 200 per cent over the last year.