The chart below shows that the industry has resumed its growth trajectory after a quieter month of August. Six platforms posted record monthly lending figures including each of the top three.
Zopa originated the most of any platform, posting £58.3m and setting a new industry record in the process. September was the third consecutive month that Zopa has topped the origination tables. We have previously identified that the major driver in Zopa’s recent growth has been institutionally funded loans. September was no exception with 63% of loans being funded by institutions.
Funding Circle took second spot with £53.6m of lending, bettering their previous biggest month by over £6m and lending over £50m in a month for the first time ever. Taking the final place on the podium this month was RateSetter, lending £47.5m, a new platform best by £4m. In the middle of the month RateSetter announced that institutions were once again lending through the platform and, whilst this was a modest amount (£800k) this month, we wait to see what impact it could have going forward.
Other platforms that posted record months were:
SavingStream with £16.1m lent
Landbay with £2.6m lent
Platform Black with £5.8m of invoices traded – a notable uptick in activity on recent months
Looking at the quarter as a whole:
Over half (59%) of the platforms within the Index reported record origination volumes.
The fastest growing sector was Equity Crowdfunding with 169% growth over the last 12 months.
The fastest growing lending sector was property backed lending which has exhibited 109% growth over the past 12 months.
Year to date lending for the sector stood at £1.97bn at the end of September. At the end of last year, we predicted that 2015 lending would be £2.85bn, with 3 months to run, the industry looks like it will come very close to that figure, indicating that it has stayed on its growth trajectory.
