KPMG’s new debt advisory service could refer SMEs to P2P

KPMG has set up a new small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) debt advisory service, to help smaller businesses obtain finance from sources including peer-to-peer lenders.

Enterprise Financing launched last month and is focused on businesses trying to raise between £2m and £10m.

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“KPMG has always had a lot of SME clients especially in the regions,” Steve Elisgood, who leads Enterprise Financing in the UK, told Peer2Peer Finance News.

“There is a changing debt landscape out there, with a wide variety of providers ranging from banks, to challenger banks, to P2P lenders. It’s quite difficult to navigate as an SME.”

Elisgood said that KPMG would obviously still consider high street banks when recommending finance to SMEs but explained that the firm would take into account all sources of credit before deciding what was appropriate.

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“I definitely think there’s a place for P2P in the market,” he said. “However, it’s likely P2P will fall outside of the remit in the majority of cases due to the size of the loans, as P2P is at the lower end.

“But I don’t see any reason we wouldn’t recommend P2P if it were appropriate for the client.

“There’s definitely a large source of funds out there. We need to find the best lender with a competitive price.”