Over the past year, the European P2P market has strengthened and exhibited a trend towards moderate growth, according to an update shared by Robocash.
As noted in a blog post by Robo.cash, a survey conducted in 2022 revealed that 43% of platform users indicated “that the market will grow moderately next year.”
Since the beginning of 2023, the European P2P industry has “shown an average growth of 5% MoM.”
Robo.cash also mentioned that the largest rise “was observed in March (+28% against February).”
During the same month, all market segments “grew in volume, especially property (+59%) and business (38%).”
Robocash analytics shared:
“According to our data for the period from 2017 to 2021, the seasonality index in March is slightly above average. It could also be because the platforms often release financial statements for previous years in March, which encourages people to invest in one platform or the other.”
For Robo.cash, March was also marked “by growth in volumes.” The platform showed “an increase of +66% compared to February.”
As noted in a blog post, a noticeable decrease “in the market was in April (-8% MoM).”
The consumer sector saw “the smallest decline of 1%.” Although at the same time, the month showed “an increase of 13% compared to the same period in 2022.”
Robocash analysts added:
“As the market is shaken by various macroeconomic factors, it becomes stronger and healthier, especially against the backdrop of volatile assets. Given the trend that emerged in the first 5 months of 2023, we can really count on systematic growth without a particular peak, if there are no events provoking this.”
As covered recently, Robocash has also pointed out that the European P2P market continues to expand, and interest rates tend to go down.
The analysts at Robo.cash platform consider this as certain patterns “that may continue in the long term.”
The European P2P lending market is “growing at an average monthly rate of 2.8% (3.6 M euros).” At the same time, the average rate of return is “decreasing by 0.03 p.p. every month.”
Robocash analysts commented on the statistics:
“There are some deviations in the trend caused by various global events. However, in general, the identified dynamics continue.”
The specialists name a few possible reasons for such market behavior.
One of them is “excessive demand, when a platform can’t provide enough loans for all users, so it lowers the returns to leverage the demand.”
Also, in such a situation, the platform may “resort to financial leverage, such as issuing bonds or taking a bank loan, which may lead to a change in rates.”
The analysts added:
“The bond or loan rate depends on the key rate of the Central Bank. In certain economic circumstances, it may turn out to be very high, and, in order to maintain its profits, the platform will be forced to reduce rates in the short term.”