Friend asked dh for 2 year loan

I do wonder why his other friend has now asked for the money back in one go rather than sticking with the installments. Maybe the installments were not happening as regularly as was agreed? I certainly wouldn't be happy to lend this sum of money to someone, though I know we could afford to do it. I never think it is a good idea to mix lending money with friendship.

I’m really baffled by this ,he needs to tell his wife if he won’t then surely it’s something dodgy(gambling or drugs).If he stays quiet she is going to carry on spending as usual

I've never experienced any delays?

I would put a stop to it. That's far too much money to ask off a friend. The wife is oblivious so he's obviously not going to face up to his spending issues. I very much doubt he'll stick to a payment plan and you'll have lost thousands and a friend.

Do we actually know if the amount he originally borrowed from the other friend was £25k? Could he have borrowed less but ended up with a bigger debt? Could he have borrowed more but had made repayments to get it down to £25k?

No way ! Unless you can count those 25 l as lost do not do it . If he didn’t pay back his previous friend why would he pay you back and why doesn’t his wife know about it ? Absolutely not

I would ask dh to pay friends debts directly to debtors rather than giving him the money directly - so your dh knows he had really helped him out

This is why you must never lend money to friends unless you are prepared to make it a gift. On no account give him a penny, he’s only using your money to pay off another friend. Who’s going to be there to pay off you?

You also would not be helping him, he’s in an unsustainable situation and borrowing money from you doesn’t solve any problems, it just postpones the day of reckoning.

I agree this looks dodgy.

DH shouldn't get involved OP

Friend borrowed the money from someone else first and is now trying to borrow money to pay this debt off! He’s still not going to pay it back to your husband, tell him he can loan friend money as long as he doesn’t expect to get it back!!!

@ParsnipPuree

you say your company has an excellent accountant - I run a company. I can assure you, you cannot (legally) take that amount out of your company funds and ‘pay’ it to yourself, either as salary or dividend, without incurring some form of penalty or tax implications.

The only exception is if your DH has previously ‘loaned’ his company money as a Directors Loan, and this is the company ‘paying him back’.

Honestly - taking money out of your own business as a loan to a friend is no way to run a company - as a director, it’s bloody messy and at a minimum - bloody bad practice.

surely if you have sufficient wealth, you can take the money out of private funds?

Another thing that's not been answered - though god knows it's been mentioned often enough - is why this amount the "friend" owes can't just be paid back directly to whoever lent it

Unless of course that original "lender" doesn't exist and it's actually money that was gained illegally ...

Neither a borrower nor a lender be. I don’t imagine you’ll see the full £25k returned to your family within the next 2yrs. Sure, a couple of repayments will be made. But they’ll tail off, and so will the friendship.

Neither lender nor borrower be. End of.

Your friend working in finance and borrowing money left right and centre!

Someone has threatened to report him to his employer if he doesn’t repay the loan.
Or he’s being blackmailed.
Or he’s been stealing from his employer
Or borrowed from criminals and they want their pound of flesh

Nevermind tax implications of OPs DH taking money out of his business and the new AML regs

This friend is probably facing bankruptcy , lose his home and job and be banned from any future employment involving money.

Well, no! We have a very good health service, which is free at the point of use so there would be no need.

I once gave a friend, whose husband’s business had gone under, £500. It was a gift not a loan. I thought of it as my money as I earned it (although joint account). My lovely, generous, kind husband was furious with me - not because of the money but because I had made a unilateral decision about something quite sensitive which had the potential to change the nature of a friendship and affect our relationship.
I’ve never forgotten it and I’ve not done it again. He had a point. If I had asked him first he may well have said yes. But I made the spur of the minute decision when my friend was upset.

It may be your husband’s money but you are a partnership and this is going to affect your relationship with feckless friend and FF’s wife. It will make it so awkward and you will silently be judging their every extravagance.
Your husband has put you in a difficult and impotent position. He has put his friend’s feelings ahead of yours.
I would be angry that the FF told him to keep it secret from you - that’s wholly unacceptable. I’d be having a word with FF to let him know there were no secrets in my marriage and there shouldn’t be in his. I hope it all works out but the chances are FF is lying to your DH. The debt may well be more than £25k. The story about the first lender needing it back suddenly does not sound true. The suicidal thoughts are manipulation. Even if true, who, with any self-respect, would put that on a friend? The lying to wife is completely inexcusable. Nobody (in finance) runs up £25k of debt buying extras for four kids. Its ridiculous. At the v least your husband should make the loan dependent on the FF coming clean with the wife. There is likely to be much more to this than your DP is being told.

You have no idea what this man has done to get into this debt, or how much he owes in reality or to whom. He could involved in all sorts of dodgy deals, embezzlement, loan sharks. If or when the chickens come home to roost and his regulators or worse the police start examining his accounts ,do you really want your husband to be drawn into whatever shitstorm is whirling around? He might have a lot of explaining away his enabling loans. They may or may not believe that a professional man such as your husband just lent money out of kindness and not because he was also up to his neck in shady dealing. Do not let your husband lend this money. His naivety will not save him, you or the family, from the stress of a police investigation (Or worse, much much worse.)

I was thinking this

Honestly this crossed my mind. I’ve heard multiple stories of men who are well off and when they lose their money they can’t face letting down their loved ones and so they take their own lives, and in the media I’ve heard of some men kill their whole family rather than tell them they’ve bankrupted them.

I know that’s far fetched, but this man sounds like he is spiralling. This 25k potentially isn’t for paying off a friend, that could be a story so that your DH doesn’t ask to transfer the money to the credit card company. He’s probably just looking to get his next load of money in the bank so he can continue his facade to his wife and family. It’s like a pyramid scheme.

In admit I have a bit of imagination but I’d maybe stipulate to him via your DH, I will loan you this but only if your I pay this friend directly and if you tell your wife

I think a lot of people are missing the fact that OP's H is NOT planning on lending this money, he plans for his Company to.
As I have discovered this IS actually possible but makes it much more complicated if the friend does not pay it back.
Both OP and her H could be in trouble with HMRC and in some circumstances prosecuted if this happens.
There is no reason for the Business to do this and directors have to act in the best interests of their Business as a seperate entity. I fail to see how lending £25k to a debt ridden individual with no connection to the company and to charge no interest could be said to be in the companies interest.

How do you know there’s no gambling/drug problem?
you just have to look at this website to see women breaking their hearts over finding out their husbands are in huge amounts of debts for hidden addictions.