Mike Carter vows 36H Group has a future despite Zopa’s P2P exit
The 36H Group has said that despite founding members RateSetter and now Zopa leaving the sector, the trade association has a future and is in discussions with new members.
Last year RateSetter left the peer-to-peer lending space following its Metro Bank acquisition, and Zopa announced on Tuesday (7 December) that it will close its P2P lending operations in January in favour of focussing on bank lending and an initial public offering.
Mike Carter (pictured), head of platform lending at the 36H Group, said that members come and go but the trade body has a future within Innovate Finance and has had discussions with P2P platforms about joining the group and will pick these up in the new year.
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“We have verticals for lots of different parts of the fintech sector, a crypto vertical, a P2P vertical,” he said.
“We have a number of different groups for the different parts of the sector, and the 36H Group will continue to be a core vertical within fintech, and we will continue to provide that going forward. There’s no surprise that from time-to-time members will come and go and that will continue to happen.
“We’re there to represent the whole of fintech, P2P is a key sector so we’ll of course continue to offer that group.
“What’s interesting about P2P is it’s one of the earliest fintech sectors so it provides some interesting history and precedent for other parts of fintech. It remains an important part of the ecosystem for everyone and has its own needs and requirements.”
According to the 36H Group’s website, current members include Funding Circle, Zopa, RateSetter, Lending Works and CrowdProperty, which were all initial members, and Assetz Capital which later joined.