Government reveals British Business Bank P2P lending exposure
The British Business Bank (BBB) is still invested in more than £100m of loans on peer-to-peer lending platforms, data reveals.
The figures were revealed in a government response to a parliamentary question from former City minister Lord Myners on the exposure of the BBB to the P2P lending sector.
The BBB has previously channelled funds via P2P platforms RateSetter and Funding Circle, as well as former P2P platforms ThinCats and MarketInvoice (which has since rebranded to MarketFinance).
The response reveals the BBB had an exposure of £102.9m as of 31 March 2019 and £101.3m as of 30 September 2019
The BBB said in its 2019 annual report that more than £6.6bn was lent to more than 89,000 businesses in the UK during the 12 months to March 2019.
The majority went through alternative finance providers but this is a mix of P2P and other lenders.
Lord Myners has been pressing through several parliamentary questions to reveal the BBB’s exposure to bad P2P loans.
The government has rejected these calls, claiming the information is “commercially sensitive.” and subject to confidentiality agreements.
Responding on behalf of the government, Lord Callanan, parliamentary under-secretary for the department for business, energy and industrial strategy, said the government could not publish aggregate default rates without compromising confidentiality in relation to individual platforms.
“In keeping with our commercial approach, we do however continually monitor the market and carry out extensive due diligence on any P2P lender before entering any commercial agreement with them,” he said.
“Once an arrangement is in place, we receive regular data on the performance of our loan book to ensure that this is in line with the contractual expectations we have made with them.”
Read more: British Business Bank extends funding programme to P2P lenders