RateSetter hits £2.5bn of lending

RATESETTER’S loanbook has hit the £2.5bn mark.

The peer-to-peer lender, which launched in 2010, said 65,000 people have RateSetter investment accounts, financing more than 460,000 borrowers.

Investors have lent more than £1.55bn to individuals and almost £950m to businesses and have earned an average annual return of 4.4 per cent.

“We are very proud that we’ve helped more than half a million investors and borrowers access better interest rates on the £2.5bn of lending that has been delivered through the RateSetter platform,” Peter Behrens (pictured), chief lending officer for RateSetter, said.

“Reaching this milestone shows how deep and broad our marketplace has become in space of just eight years, and we look forward with great excitement to helping even more people access investment in loans as we work towards the next £2.5bn of lending.”

The platform reported last week that it had paid £100m interest to investors without any lenders losing a penny.

It comes after RateSetter introduced its Innovative Finance ISA in February and saw more than £80m of subscriptions from 10,000 investors in just three months.

Investors are also gearing up for a series of changes to its Rolling Market product to go live next month, removing the ability for investors to set their own rate on reinvested funds and altering how returns are paid.

Its Rolling Market product –  that has a rate set by supply and demand and lets investors access their funds free at any point – is its most popular product but RateSetter said customers can find it complicated when rates fluctuate