UK peer to peer lending, and related topics.
I started P2Pblog in 2016 as the UK Peer to Peer Lending industry was in a period of rapid expansion. I posted monthly updates of my personal investments across P2P Lending, ETFs and Property Crowdfunding. I made in depth reviews of platforms that I had used, and created some basic tools and industry insights.
The industry developed rapidly, with greater involvement from the FCA and as P2P Lending platforms began to offer the Innovative Finance ISA (IF ISA) which allowed long term investments in a more tax-efficient structure. However, there were underlying issues with many of the nascent platforms, either potential fraud, mismanagement or business models that relied on higher interest rate margins. From 2019 we saw some high profile platform failures where investors lost money or had their investments tied up for long periods of time. We also saw some of the larger more successful platforms change their 'P2P' business model and close their offerings to retail investors.
Financial Promotions
None of the P2P lending platforms have a relationship with P2PBlog and there are no affiliate links to any of them, no referral codes, no paid placements and no ratings. This is in line with the FCA's financial promotion rules.
The site may earn now or in future via referrals to non P2P related services or via general advertising on the website (via Google AdSense).
Three things this site is for
What is still open
Roughly 35 to 40 FCA-authorised platforms still take retail money, most of them lending against property. Each profile is a fact box and a plain description built from the platform's own published information, with the date it was read.
What happened to the rest
Zopa, RateSetter, Funding Circle, Assetz Capital, Landbay and Lending Works all shut retail out. Lendy, Collateral, FundingSecure, MoneyThing and Ablrate failed outright. One page per platform: when it stopped, why, and what information we are allowed to share on what the lenders got back.
How the rules work
The Innovative Finance ISA, tax on peer to peer interest, what the FSCS does and does not cover, provision funds, secondary markets and wind-down plans.
Also here
- What peer to peer lending actually is, and whether the idea survived the decade.
- A table of every open platform.
- Running a one-person limited company, as it is what I do day-to-day and may be of interest to readers too.
Corrections are welcome and get made. If a figure here is wrong or out of date, tell me and I will fix it and say when.