Hargreaves Lansdown drops P2P plans

HARGREAVES Lansdown has ditched plans to launch a peer-to-peer platform.

The DIY investing giant had been planning a P2P proposition to launch this year but confirmed this morning that it had gone on the “back burner” and was now no longer a focus.

Discussing the platform last September, spokesman Danny Cox said it would offer marketplace loans to both businesses and individuals, targeting the firm’s existing client base for investment.

It was being worked on alongside a cash management service, which the firm is now prioritising.

Read more: Hargreaves Lansdown to hire P2P marketing manager

“The savings proposition is unique; we are pioneering a completely fresh way of helping people make more of their cash,” Chris Hill, chief executive of Hargreaves Lansdown, said.

“Building this to the standard our clients deserve is quite rightly taking considerable time and resources.

“The savings proposition is a much bigger market with far more potential – the savings market alone is around £700bn, which compares to the current loans in the P2P market being around £3.5bn.

“Our focus has been on savings and this has meant that P2P has pretty much been on the back burner for some time now, to the extent that I now no longer see this as being part of our wider offering.”

Hill said P2P remained an interesting market for “selected investors” but was no longer part of their plans.

The platform had hired a marketing manager for both propositions, but the role will now focus on the savings side.

Read more: P2P platforms develop their own SIPPs