36H Group to start collating data later this year
The 36H Group will start collecting and publishing data on peer-to-peer lending volumes in the second half of this year, amid new calls for more P2P input in sector oversight.
Speaking at the P2P Investing Summit, a virtual event hosted by Peer2Peer Finance News and AngelNews, Mike Carter (pictured), head of platform lending at the 36H Group, confirmed that the industry body is almost ready to publish data on its member platforms.
“In the first instance we’re going to start collecting volume data from members in the second half of this year,” said Carter.
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“At the moment they all publish their own returns data on their websites but there’s a bit of a gap because there used to be data published by Brismo and before that by the P2PFA, so we want to start providing some data on how the sector is doing.”
During a panel discussion about P2P regulation, Carter said that investors and advisers should take confidence from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulations that have come into the P2P sector over the last few years.
“Obviously its difficult for them sometimes to know how they’ve been implemented from the inside and the proof of the pudding is really in the returns which all the platforms publish and really, returns have been great all the way through this last downturn,” Carter pointed out.
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“That is the proof of whether or not the regulation framework is working and if its not, then there are going to be losses and investors will pick up on that pretty quickly and they’ll go elsewhere.”
Carter’s fellow panellist Roy Warren, managing director of Folk2Folk, gave his backing to the idea of a P2P panel made up from industry experts which would advise the FCA on its regulation of the sector.
“That sounds like a good idea to me,” said Warren. “Sitting around a table would be very valuable to leaders in the P2P sector and we could help that education process. I think it would be vital.”
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