Peer to peer lending (P2P) enables individuals to obtain loans directly from other individuals, cutting out the financial institution as the middleman.
As such, the lack of trust in middlemen has seen the emergence of peer to peer lending platforms as an attractive proposition for retail investors in a climate of low interest rates because they can offer better rates thanks to the lower overheads associated with online businesses. The lower overheads are also related to not having to pay a middleman!
The platforms are generally a website or app that facilitates this alternate method of financing, where the first emerged in 2005 and was brought under FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) regulation in 2014.
However, the FCA has been criticised as being too “light touch” in its oversight following the collapse in May this year of UK property finance peer to peer firm Lendy with £160m in outstanding loans of which it has been calculated more than £90m are in default.
According to CityAM, Lendy was placed on a FCA watchlist last year amid concerns about its inability to meet the standards required of regulated firms. Its subsequent failure is believed likely to result in retail investors losing £millions.
The demise of Lendy came a year after the peer to peer platform Collateral UK went into administration, reportedly, according to the website crowd funder insider, after it was discovered that it had wrongly believed it was authorized and regulated by the FCA under interim permission.
FCA chief Andrew Bailey has been reported as saying that the decision to authorise Lendy had been taken to reduce consumer harm, as refusing authorisation may have risked greater damage.
However, Adam Bunch of the Lendy Action Group, which claims to represent about 900 investors, said: “FCA authorisation was seen by investors as a stamp of credibility. Only now, after the platform has failed, do we learn that the regulator in fact saw authorisation as a way to contain a badly run business”.
I would add that the reference to ‘investors’ worries me since there seems to be no distinction between shareholders, secured lenders and unsecured lenders nor any understanding of ‘caveat emptor’.
Indeed, Lendy was a lending platform and there is no mention of the peers as retail lenders who have a prior ranking claim over investors (shareholders) but I am sure it highlights the ignorance among retail investors and lenders who might be better off seeking advice from professionally qualified middlemen.
Not surprisingly, there have been growing calls for tighter FCA regulation of peer to peer lenders and in June, following consultations, the FCA launched new, tighter regulations, most of which will come into effect in December this year.
They include introducing more explicit requirements to clarify what governance arrangements, systems and controls platforms need to have in place to support the outcomes they advertise and a requirement that an appropriateness assessment (to assess an investor’s knowledge and experience of P2P investments) be undertaken, where no advice has been given to the investors and lenders.
In September the FCA also warned peer to peer lenders to clean up poor practices or face a “strong and rapid” crackdown.
Whether this will be enough to stem the reported exodus of investors’ money from peer to peer lending and to better protect them remains to be seen.
However, the warning to potential investors remains as it has always been to not invest any money you can’t afford to lose.
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