Orca expands remit to advise City investors
ORCA is expanding its services to advise institutional investors looking to enter the peer-to-peer lending market.
The firm, which provides analysis and a P2P investment portfolio product, said it is increasingly working with institutions to provide research, recommendations and risk management.
The new service will offer research on entering P2P lending markets in different countries as well as its own portfolio management service for institutions. “We are looking to partner with institutions hoping to enter the market,” Iain Niblock, chief executive of Orca, said.
Read more: UK P2P lenders predicted to become more reliant on institutional funding
“The service is ideal for investors with an interest in the sector but where people may not know who the lenders are, what the returns are like, how to set up investments or the best way to manage allocations. “It is also good for those who may have inexperienced teams and need the benefits of a third party.”
Orca’s latest research focused on Germany, where it claimed there is an opportunity for institutional investors to back P2P platforms due to the consolidation of mainstream banks in the country. It said there was an opportunity for investors to get exposure to Europe’s largest economy through Germany’s established P2P lenders including Auxmoney, Exporo and Funding Circle.
“If P2P platforms or other direct lenders are not doing the lending, it’s worth taking a look at the wider market to investigate if this market is likely to grow,” Orca said.
“The German banking system, in part government owned, is being drastically consolidated. In particular, the regionalised savings banks and co-operatives of old who typically lend to consumers and small businesses are being acquired, merged, or replaced.”
Read more: Orca warns against undue focus on P2P profits
This article first appeared in the December print edition of Peer2Peer Finance News.