November UK Volume Roundup - One new entry, four new records and Funding Circle to reach £1bn by Christmas?

The UK’s Alternative Finance sector originated £265.6m during the month of November. The month saw the UK Liberum AltFi Volume Index top £5bn in cumulative volume. Almost half of that £5bn of financing has been originated in 2015 – testament to the speed of growth within the industry. November’s monthly tally was the second highest total ever, £14m adrift of the record that the sector set in September.

Figure 1: UK AltFi Industry cumulative monthly origination.

Several platforms set new high water marks for their monthly origination in November. Funding Circle went one step further, however, smashing the UK industry record for monthly origination with £62.7m of financing originated. This bettered Zopa’s September tally, and previous industry record, by £4.4m. Funding Circle’s record month appears to be powered by institutional investment with 58% of volume made up of whole loans, taken by institutions. This is the highest proportion that we have seen in any month to date. However, retail investors still lent £26.3m, the second highest monthly amount ever at Funding Circle. The platform’s cumulative origination now stands at £959.2m and is in with a chance of reaching £1bn by Christmas.

Other platforms setting new monthly highs in origination volume were:

• Abundance, with £1.8m of lending, bettering its previous high total by over £1m.
• Landbay, building on its consistent growth, posting its third consecutive record month with £3.1m of lending over the month.
• ArchOver, lending £2.3m over the month, £300k more than its previous biggest month of July 2015.

ArchOver also reached a significant milestone towards the end of the month, lending its ten millionth pound after having launched in August 2014. Commenting on the achievement, Angus Dent, CEO of ArchOver, said: “Naturally we are pleased to reach this significant figure – having achieved it in around a year of operation has exceeded our expectations in a very competitive marketplace, although of course we remain very ambitious.”

AltFi Data also welcomed a new platform into the index this month - Proplend, a secured commercial property lender. The platform recently sailed past the minimum cumulative volume required for inclusion in the UK LAVI, just 10 months after having made its first loan. Brian Bartaby, Proplend’s CEO and Founder commented on the occasion: “We are very pleased to be working with AltFi and Liberum in providing our commercial property lending data for the UK Volume Index. P2P loan volumes in 2015 have exceeded all industry expectations and 2016 shows no signs of a slowdown.”

With a month to go until the end of the year and £2.54bn of financing originated, the industry has made massive strides in many respect, the continued and rapid growth in origination volumes underlines this. Looking forward to 2016, can the industry maintain the rate of growth?