By Sam Griffiths on Thursday 11 September 2014
The Peer-to-Peer lending industry in the UK is now worth over £2 billion – according to figures from AltFi Data.
The P2P Lending segment of the Liberum AltFi Volume Index, which tracks the cumulative lending volume of the UK’s major P2P lending platforms, now stands at £2.004bn. To put this growth into context, the P2P segment only passed the £1bn mark in December last year. By May the figure stood at £1.5 billion. The sector continues to grow at a rapid pace, with an annualized growth rate of 158% so far this year.
The growth of the industry can now be tracked on AltFi Data’s website at www.altfidata.com. The site allows users to create their own interactive graphs – plotting the performances of various sectors and/or platforms against one another over pre-specified time frames. Users can also gain an insight into the market share held by the individual platforms – again over time periods which users control.
Giles Andrews, Zopa CEO and co-founder said:
“To surpass the two billion pound mark is a massive achievement for the UK market. This has been achieved by UK consumers willing to think outside the banks. What started out 10 years ago as an idea in a barn with Zopa is now one of the most innovative and disruptive industries in the world. The UK peer-to-peer lending industry is growing faster than ever and we look forward to continuing to reshape the future of finance in the UK. Our mission at Zopa is to deliver great value by making money simple and fair.”
Sam Griffiths, MD of AltFi Data, commented:
“It’s great to be able to accurately track and publiscise the continued development of such an exciting and innovative space on a daily basis.”
The growth of the industry throughout 2014 has been nothing short of astonishing to witness – but in truth we may only have scratched the surface. The investment bank Liberum recently pointed to the impending inclusion of peer-to-peer investments within ISAs as crucial in bringing the sector into the limelight. Couple that with the recently confirmed Lending Club IPO – which has already received a huge amount of media attention – and it’s clear to see why many are predicting even greater growth in the years ahead. Indeed, Liberum’s Cormac Leech has gone so far as to suggest that the UK peer-to-peer lending industry could be worth £32 billion in a decade.
