During the market recovery following the Coronavirus crisis, European peer-to-peer platforms that emerged by 2017 have managed to rebound “at above-market growth rate,” according to a report from Robo.cash.
The Croatian P2P lender noted that “calm upward trend is supported by a 2% increase in monthly financed loans in 2021.”
In order to assess the growth rate of P2P platforms, the analysts at Robo.cash looked at 43 different platforms that are present in 16 European nations and “operating mainly in the consumer and business segments.”
The funding volume on platforms of Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France, Ireland and Croatia has “grown by an average of 16% over the past year,” the report revealed. What these P2P players have in common is that, on average, they “fund loans of 3 to 14 M euro per month and have a long track record,” the report noted.
The Polish platforms have been able to pass the COVID-19 crisis quite easily, with “a maximum drop of 11% in the acute period.”
The team at Robo.cash also pointed out that this trend “could be explained by the low market presence.” On the one hand, it “reduces the risks of a sharp downturn, but … it also limits growth opportunities,” the report added.
A sharp decline and high growth after the “main wave of the Coronavirus” was observed by the Belgian platforms.
The analysts added that it’s possible that “such dynamics happened due to the small volumes and high volatility of these platforms.” They also mentioned that these platforms “easily react to any positive or negative trend in the market, because of which panic could have a strong impact.” But he volumes would “return to the previous level as the market recovers,” the report confirmed.
In general, the “influence of the registration locality on the activities of the P2P platform itself is low,” the report added while noting that “in part, this can be expressed in the population characteristics if the platform operates directly within the country and issues loans to its citizens or businesses.”
The report concluded:
“Regardless of where the platform belongs geographically, the market is largely driven by general trends. However, it is very likely that the P2P platforms of the countries noted above will continue to develop at an outstripping pace. Thus, in August 2021, Robo.cash volumes increased by 139% compared to August 2020, representing the Croatian market trend, which is higher than 63% of European P2P platforms.”