UK P2P sector approaches £10bn lending milestone
THE loanbooks of the UK’s biggest peer-to-peer lenders approached £10bn in the second quarter of 2018.
Figures from the Peer-to-Peer Finance Association (P2PFA) show the eight members of the trade body have lent a combined £9.9bn to borrowers as of June 2018, up by £1bn on the first three months of the year.
Funding Circle remains the largest lender, with cumulative lending of £3.8bn, followed by Zopa with £3.4bn.
However, Crowdstacker saw the biggest growth over the quarter, seeing new lending grow 183 per cent to £8.8m.
ThinCats and Landbay saw new lending decline by 25.8 per cent and 9.2 per cent respectively over the quarter.
The data doesn’t include lending from new member CrowdProperty, which only joined this month.
“In the past quarter, over 150,000 investors helped to facilitate more than £1bn of new lending – nearly three-quarters of which supported businesses,” Robert Pettigrew, director of the P2PFA, said.
“This growth in the level of P2P lending underlines the significant impact the sector continues to make to the real economy.
“It is clear that P2P lending is increasingly viewed as an important source of finance by consumers and businesses alike. These quarterly lending statistics demonstrate that P2P continues to increase choice and competition across the board – helping to consolidate the sector’s place in the financial services market.”
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