UK Industry powers through £1bn for 2015 - May's volume roundup

The year to date origination volume for the Liberum AltFi Volume Index UK breezed through £1bn in the last days of the record breaking month of May. The UK Alternative Finance space continues to grow, with a record amount of financing arranged by the sector in May. At £223.3m of origination for the month, volumes were £11m higher than last month, the previous best. The rapid rate of growth appears to be slowing, however, at least on a percentage basis. May 2015 origination was 81% higher than May 2014. However, the average year on year monthly growth over the last six months is 92%. Two further milestones were reached this month: both the P2P consumer and P2P business sectors achieved £1.5bn in cumulative lending, not an insignificant milestone given that just 12 months ago the entire industry was passing the same milestone.

Zopa once again claimed the top spot in May with £41.8m of loans originated, proving that April’s massive industry record was not an anomaly. Zopa’s volumes were no doubt buoyed by its recent partnerships with Uber and Metro Bank. RateSetter and Funding Circle joined Zopa on May’s podium with £37m and £34.1m origination respectively. Zopa's three month market share (our preferred measure in this fast growing industry) is now the biggest in the UK, inching past RateSetter in the past few days.

Other notable performances included the challenger consumer lending platform, LendingWorks which set itself a new platform origination record with £1.18m of money put to work through the platform. Saving Stream, the secured lending specialist, continued its impressive growth this month, also setting itself a platform record and more than doubling its previous best month with £10.75m lent.

We are pleased to welcome a new platform to the LAVI – Lendable, a consumer lender that looks to lend money to what it calls near prime borrowers rather than the prime and super prime borrowers that UK P2P platforms have traditionally targeted. Lendable’s cumulative volume rose above the LARI minimum threshold for inclusion (0.01% of cumulative total) just a couple of weeks ago, the platform having started to trade at the end of May 2014. This now takes the number of consumer lenders in the Index to 5 up from just 2 platforms at the beginning of October last year.