Record numbers of investors and borrowers as cumulative lending hits £11.3bn
MORE than 150,000 lenders were invested in 321,483 loans facilitated by Peer-to-Peer Finance Association (P2PFA) platforms at the end of the second quarter, which the trade body deemed “a record level of involvement in the sector”.
Cumulative lending through the association’s eight platforms — CrowdProperty, Crowdstacker, Folk2Folk, Funding Circle, Landbay, Lending Works, ThinCats and Zopa — surpassed £11.3bn as of the end of June, according to data released by the self-regulatory body.
Funding Circle is the largest P2P lender among the P2PFA platform members, having lent out a cumulative total of £5.4bn as of the end of the second quarter. It is followed by Zopa at £4.5bn, with ThinCats in third place with just over £491m.
While cumulative lending among P2PFA members grew over the period, there was a slowdown in new lending compared to the first quarter of the year. £814m of new loans were made in the second quarter, compared to £866m in the first three months of 2019.
However, the second quarter figure was a significant year-on-year increase from £690m.
Read more: P2PFA looks to woo intermediaries
The P2PFA now segments business and property lending data, which showed that £442m of new business loans were made in the second quarter and £61m of property loans. This is down from £477m and £82m in the first quarter respectively.
New consumer loans equated to £312m in the second quarter – a slight increase from £307m in the first quarter.
“The growing number of investors and borrowers in P2P lending are attracted by the innovative and competitive offer from P2PFA platforms,” said P2PFA director Robert Pettigrew.
“P2PFA platforms have secured demonstrable investor and borrower confidence as the UK P2P lending market develops further as an attractive, grown-up marketplace for loans which are open and accessible to a wide spectrum of investors and borrowers.”
Read more: MarketInvoice confirms departure from P2PFA
P2PFA data released earlier this month found that the value of the Innovative Finance ISA market among its members had surged to over £500m by the end of the second quarter.
