These peer-to-peer platforms lent nearly £3bn in 2016
Nearly £3bn was lent across the UK’s biggest peer-to-peer platforms last year, new figures out today showed.
More than £800,000 was lent in the last quarter of 2016 by members of the Peer-to-Peer Finance Association (P2PFA).
Since the beginning of 2010, members of the association have lent an estimated £7.3bn.
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Zopa is the P2PFA’s biggest member, lending £1.9bn in the six-year period, followed by Funding Circle (£1.8bn) and RateSetter (£1.6bn).
The organisation’s five other members are LendInvest (£855m), Market Invoice (£838m), ThinCats (£211m), Landbay (£43m) and Lending Works (£39m).
Over 2016, P2PFA tracked around £2.95bn of lending, compared with around £2.24bn in 2015.
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Robert Pettigrew, P2PFA director, said:
The performance of P2PFA platforms in 2016 bodes well for 2017: this is a very exciting time for the sector with growing confidence, the development of new opportunities – such as the Innovative Finance Isa – and increasing awareness of the role peer-to-peer lending can play in broadening access to lending and returns.
Kevin Caley, the founder and chairman of ThinCats, said: “While the UK’s traditional lenders reported a decline in demand for loans from SMEs in Q4, the P2P sector saw the value of new loans to businesses rise 27 per cent quarter-on-quarter.
“The sector also saw 4,000 more businesses turn to peer to peer for finance in Q4. This 16 per cent rise was the biggest jump in 2016.”