P2P lending grows in popularity in Europe
Peer-to-peer lending is growing in popularity in Europe with the number of Google searches for the term in the continent rising steadily in 2021, research has revealed.
An analysis from Robo.cash has found that Spain has one of the highest numbers of Google queries for the period, and every month the amount is growing by an average of 2.1 per cent.
In Italy, Google searches for P2P loans are growing by 2.6 per cent per month, the highest growth rate of any country analysed.
The high involvement of Europeans in P2P investments at the beginning of 2021 then slowed down in the summer, which can be seen from a huge drop in Google searches for “p2p invest” and “crowdlending” in March.
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“After the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, consumers saw P2P loans as a viable alternative to the banking sector,” Robo.cash analysts said.
“This is an example of a far-reaching transformation process that will completely reshape the financial services industry.
“At the moment there is no unequivocal confirmation of the demand for P2P investments across the entire market.
“Taking into account the pandemic crisis, investors carefully assess risks and pay particular attention to filling their portfolios. But the expansion of potential borrowers and, accordingly, the growth of their confidence in P2P lending will definitely have a positive effect on investor demand.”
Separately, Robo.cash has announced in a blog post that from 16 December, investors who have purchased long term loans for a period of 90 days or longer will receive monthly interest payments every 30 days.
Last month, the European P2P platform updated interest rates on short-term loans.