The UK Peer to Peer Finance Association (P2PFA) has posted a note on an industry milestone. According to the P2PFA, member platforms have now surpassed £10 billion in total lending during the most recent quarter. The P2PFA states that over £900 million was originated on member platforms during each quarter of 2018. The most pronounced growth is for online lending to small businesses.
The quarterly data, which for the first time includes statistics from CrowdProperty which joined the P2PFA in July, indicates that net lending flow of capital increased between the second and third quarters of the year.
The P2PFA was established in 2011 as a representative and self-regulatory group. The P2PFA sets a high standard of business conduct for member platforms while working with policy-makers and regulators to ensure an affective online lending industry.
Current P2PFA members are as follows: CrowdProperty, Crowdstacker, Folk2Folk, Funding Circle, Landbay, Lending Works, Market Invoice, ThinCats, and Zopa.
The P2PFa highlighted several points:
- There is high demand from entrepreneurs to help with succession planning as they make plans to exit their businesses: Employee Ownership Trusts (EOTs) are becoming increasingly popular as employees get the benefit of shared ownership whilst exiting founders take comfort that the interests of employees are being looked after.
- Across all lending sectors, there has been increased interest from institutional investors for loans to businesses, consumer and real estate lending markets are driving additional due diligence on platforms which enable co-investing retail lenders to benefit from loans
Robert Pettigrew, Director of the P2PFA, commented on the industry acheivement:
‘With this exciting milestone it is clear that the significance of the peer-to-peer lending sector’s contribution to the UK economy continues to grow in magnitude. Across the entire spectrum of small business, consumer and real estate lending, each billion facilitated by member platforms represents thousands of borrowers and investors helping each other achieve their goals – accessing the finance that they need or earning attractive returns.”
Aggregate levels of peer-to-peer lending by P2PFA platforms between Q3 2017 and Q3 2018:
| Q3 2017 | Q4 2017 | Q1 2018 | Q2 2018 | Q3 2018 | |
| Cumulative Lending | £7,168,727,657 | £8,033,329,880 | £8,962,960,776 | £9,982,437,304 | £10,999,319,416 |
| -o/w lending to businesses | £4,440,151,180 | £5,039,000,838 | £5,669,559,956 | £6,448,565,177 | £7,204,410,255 |
| -o/w lending to individuals | £2,728,576,477 | £2,994,329,042 | £3,263,400,820 | £3,533,871,127 | £3,794,909,161 |
| Base stock of loans (outstanding loan book) | £2,958,326,435 | £3,258,708,518 | £3,530,634,586 | £3,749,920,897 | £3,994,953,650 |
| -o/w lending to businesses | £1,754,510,098 | £1,971,666,313 | £2,170,368,751 | £2,328,839,798 | £2,527,017,211 |
| -o/w lending to individuals | £1,204,816,337 | £1,287,042,205 | £1,360,265,835 | £1,421,081,099 | £1,467,936,439 |
| New Lending | £733,270,490 | £836,982,950 | £929,137,724 | £1,019,091,811 | £934,786,603 |
| -o/w lending to businesses | £472,393,077 | £571,229,385 | £660,076,506 | £748,620,503 | £673,749,570 |
| -o/w lending to individuals | £260,877,413 | £265,752,565 | £269,061,218 | £270,471,308 | £261,037,033 |
| Capital Repaid | £508,891,428 | £551,968,213 | £641,924,952 | £757,864,189 | £731,157,708 |
| -o/w lending to businesses | £337,105,103 | £369,441,516 | £446,087,365 | £548,208,144 | £516,976,016 |
| -o/w lending to individuals | £171,786,325 | £182,526,697 | £195,837,587 | £209,656,045 | £214,181,692 |
| Net Lending Flow | £228,055,356 | £277,677,738 | £287,533,338 | £255,202,073 | £263,036,509 |
| -o/w lending to businesses | £138,964,268 | £194,451,870 | £214,309,707 | £191,386,810 | £216,181,168 |
| -o/w lending to individuals | £89,091,088 | £83,225,868 | £73,223,631 | £60,815,263 | £46,855,341 |
| Number of current lenders | 134,658 | 138,829 | 148,222 | 150,385 | 148,834 |
| Number of current borrowers | 246,813 | 263,110 | 276,278 | 272,225 | 281,479 |
| -o/w are businesses | 43,425 | 48,834 | 54,485 | 43,682 | 46,996 |
| -o/w are individuals | 203,388 | 214,276 | 221,793 | 228,543 | 234,483 |
Cumulative P2PFA platform level lending data between Q3 2017 and Q3 2018:
| Q3 2017 | Q4 2017 | Q1 2018 | Q2 2018 | Q3 2018 | |
| CrowdProperty | £23,013,692 | ||||
| Crowdstacker | £35,209,322 | £37,714,968, | £46,612,890 | £51,265,724 | |
| Folk2Folk | £176,419,805 | £191,918,805 | £212,510,805 | £234,562,305 | £257,130,306 |
| Funding Circle | £2,747,357,362 | £3,093,910,983 | £3,448,615,744 | £3,806,000,000 | £4,183,000,000 |
| Landbay | £59,561,822 | £82,627,314 | £109,445,017 | £133,771,821 | £182,891,798 |
| Lending Works | £71,699,386 | £83,183,353 | £98,772,559 | £115,658,873 | £131,862,745 |
| MarketInvoice | £1,201,857,191 | £1,366,252,414 | £1,611,099,422 | £1,939,220,161 | £2,213,027,735 |
| ThinCats | £254,955,000 | £269,082,000 | £280,174,000 | £288,398,000 | £294,091,000 |
| Zopa | £2,656,877,091 | £2,911,145,689 | £3,164,628,261 | £3,418,213,254 | £3,663,046,416 |
| TOTAL | £7,168,727,657 | £8,033,329,880 | £8,962,960,776 | £9,982,437,304 | £10,999,319,416 |