Why haven’t more platforms joined the 36H Group?
It has been one year since the 36H Group was founded as a dedicated trade body for the peer-to-peer lending community.
Yet one year on, just six platforms have joined the group.
Some P2P lending platforms have questioned whether the trade body has value for membership, and others have pointed out that the group has never approached them about membership.
The trade body was formed in January last year, replacing the Peer-to-Peer Finance Association (P2PFA) with the founding members of Funding Circle, Zopa, RateSetter, Lending Works and CrowdProperty. Assetz Capital later joined.
Over the past year no more platforms have joined the trade body, although Peer2Peer Finance News understands one is undergoing early talks about the potential benefits of joining and another plans on speaking to the group.
Read more: A year in the life of the 36H Group
Carl Davies, chief operating officer of The House Crowd, said that his platform has no plans to join and hasn’t been approached by the trade body.
“They are a bit anonymous in my opinion and don’t really speak for the P2P industry that’s Financial Conduct Authority regulated,” he said.
“To be honest, I don’t see the benefit from a time and money investment.”
Read more: Exclusive interview with 36H Group’s Mike Carter
Similarly, Narinder Khattoare, chief executive of Kuflink, said the trade body has not approached the platform.
“We haven’t been asked,” he said.
“The P2PFA asked us to join them but the 36H Group hasn’t asked us to join.
“If I’m honest I’ve heard about them, but I don’t know a great deal about them.”
Daniel Rajkumar, managing director of Rebuildingsociety, said it comes down to value for money.
“We do want to join but when I checked over a year ago it was a bit expensive to join, and it’s difficult to make an accurate value judgment on it,” he said.
Roy Warren, managing director of Folk2Folk, has previously said the platform decided not to join the trade body because its model is different from many platforms with a local lending ethos, rural niche focus and a customer base that values a high level of human interaction.
The 36H Group has been contacted for comment.