Levels of peer-to-peer lending during the second quarter of 2016 have been published, with cumulative lending by the sector amounting to more than £5.8 billion — £658 million of which took place between April and June 2016. Commenting on the data, the Chair of the Peer-to-Peer Finance Association, Christine Farnish, CBE, said: ‘the main story behind these latest figures on peer-to-peer lending is the continued expansion in the number of investors and borrowers – with more than 150,376 lenders and 332,107 borrowers currently using P2PFA platforms. More borrowers – both individual and businesses – underscores that peer-to-peer lending is now a mainstream alternative finance product, engaging an increasing number of participants’. ENDS Notes to Editors Peer-to-peer lending – regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority since April 2014 – involves direct matching of funds between investors and borrowers through an on-line platform. Investors range from retail consumers to institutional investors as well as the government. Borrowers range from consumers, small businesses, property developers and buy-to-let. Peer-to-peer lending platforms are able to match investors and borrowers directly for a fraction of the cost of traditional financial services entities, providing benefits to customers on both sides of the transaction. The table below shows aggregate levels of peer-to-peer lending by member platforms of the Peer-to-Peer Finance Association over the last two quarters. The table below shows Peer-to-Peer Finance Association platform level lending data over the last four quarters: Contact Robert Pettigrew (Policy & Communications’ Director, Peer-to-Peer Finance Association): e-mail – robertpettigrew@p2pfa.eu; telephone: 07771-547462
New lending in the UK P2P sector for Q2 2016 reached £658m according to data from Peer-to-Peer Finance Association; with total cumulative lending for the sector reportedly just over £5.8bn. The report also revealed that there were more than a million new loans made by peer-to-peer lenders during Q2.