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 April 2014 reached £658m according to data from Peer-to-Peer Finance Association; with total cumulative lending for the sector reportedly just over £5.8bn. Peer-to-Peer Finance Association Chair, Christine Farnish, suggested that the figures highlight that P2P lending can now be seen as “a mainstream alternative finance product, engaging an increasing number of participants” in the UK.