P2P sector smashes milestones in 2022
Peer-to-peer lenders have continued to grow their loanbooks this year, with many of the smaller players surpassing the £100m and £200m cumulative lending milestones.
Analysis of publicly available loanbook data by Peer2Peer Finance News found that lending has grown substantially over the first five months of the year.
It comes after industry trade body the 36H Group released figures in March that revealed the P2P lending platforms with the largest cumulative loanbooks as of last year.
The figures at the time showed many lenders in the top 10 had cumulatively lent less than £200m, but that has now changed.
Read more: Who are the new big three?
Our research analysed the 36H Group data and compared it with the most up-to-date figures provided by P2P platforms themselves.
According to the 36H Group data, seven out of the top 10 lenders had loanbooks above £100m at the end of last year. That has increased to eight out of 10 after LendingCrowd’s loanbook increased to £102.7m so far this year.
Meanwhile, three platforms are now above the £200m mark – Assetz, CrowdProperty and Folk2Folk – while Invest & Fund is expected to reach the £200m milestone by the end of June and Kuflink is hot on its heels.
Read more: Who represents P2P platforms? A need-to-know of the sector’s trade bodies
“The sector continues to be spread across consumer, small business and property loans with an emerging bias towards property lending in the top 10,” Mike Carter, head of platform lending for the 36H Group, said.
“Historical returns have been broadly comparable for each of these asset classes.
“Growth prospects remain very positive for P2P platforms in common with the wider alternative lending sector.”
Assetz Capital, which has the largest retail-backed P2P loanbook at £1.4bn, has facilitated £7.8m so far this year, according to its loanbook statistics.
That compares with £27m lent out last year and £47m the year before, reflecting Assetz Capital’s involvement in the government’s coronavirus business interruption loan scheme (CBILS).
In second place, Folk2Folk had a cumulative loanbook of £508m at the end of 2021 and that has now grown to £536.5m.
Read more: Folk2Folk profits soar but headwinds remain
And taking the last place in the top three, CrowdProperty investors have backed £45.4m of loans so far this year, taking its cumulative lending figure to £261.6m compared with the £178m quoted by the 36H Group in 2021.
The platform lent £86m last year, so is on track to more than double that figure at the current rate of lending.
Other P2P firms in the top 10 rankings have demonstrated strong growth this year to date.
Invest & Fund’s cumulative lending has risen from £161m at the end of last year to £175m and a spokesperson said the platform is poised to hit the £200m mark at the end of its accounting year in June.
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Invest & Fund is competing with Kuflink for fourth place. Kuflink has now lent out £174m to date, compared to £156m at the end of last year.
ArchOver had cumulatively lent out £147m at the end of the year but its company website’s statistics page showed it has now grown to £152.9m, suggesting almost £6m of lending so far in 2022.
Proplend’s cumulative lending has risen from £145m to £158.7m, while LendingCrowd’s lending to date has risen from £89m to £102.7m.
Relendex has seen its lending grow from £82m at the end of 2021 to £89m in February, according to its most recently available data.
HNW Lending is the only one of the top 10 to report flat lending volumes over the comparative period, of £106m, but said its dealflow is likely to improve over the rest of the year.