European Stock Exchange

    European Stock Exchange

    The Bridge Between Crowdfunding and Regulation

    The European Stock Exchange - It's Time to Think Different

    Marketplace Lending: The Challenge of Keeping It Simple And Transparent

    Click here for full article


    LendIt Europe gathered over 900 attendees from 50 countries on the banks of the Thames river to network and hear about the latest trends in online direct lending. The tone of the conference was clearly set by the UK keynote speakers. The UK being 4 times bigger than the sum of all Continental European markets taken together, everybody was keen to hear these forerunners’ thoughts about where the market is going.

    Bumps in the Road

    Samir Desai, co-founder and CEO of Funding Circle, and Jaidev Janardana, CEO of Zopa, referred to the past twelve months as challenging. The Lending Club tarnish, issues such as fraud cases in China and Sweden, and, finally, the Brexit, have temporarily slowed down the growth of marketplace lending in the first half of 2016.

    But the incidents were taxed as mere “bumps in the road”. The market is picking up again. The hype is gone in the UK as well in the US, but now is the time for serious business, for the “Golden Age” of marketplace lending, as Samir Desai put it.

    Lending Marketplaces versus Banks

    The UK financial services regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is preparing a review of the P2P sector’s performance under the current regulatory framework. That prospect probably influenced many speakers to spend time contrasting marketplaces with banks. Margaret Doyle, Partner at Deloitte and author of the report “Marketplace Lending, A Temporary Phenomenon?” was one of the few critics of the marketplace model on stage. She argued that lending marketplaces lack sustainable competitive advantages over banks as they, among others, do not have a lower cost of funding and use the same risk analysis tools as banks. Cormac Leech, Partner at Victory Park Capital, later retorted that marketplaces will gain these advantage as they grow and reach the economies of scale and experience curve – that banks currently have.

    Many speakers, along with Samir Desai and Rhydian Lewis, founder and CEO of RateSetter, stressed that marketplace lending eschews the systemic risk posed by banks because they directly match assets and liabilities, loans with funding ‒without any maturity transformation and without holding any inventory. Banks, by contrast, take short-term deposit to provide long-term loans. Hence the bank run risk.

    Lord Adair Turner, Senior Fellow of the Institute for New Economic Thinking and former head of the UK Financial Services Authority, was more cautious in saying that marketplace lending “might” make the financial system more stable because of the absence of balance sheet risk. By contrast “banks are always in danger of magnifying the credit crunch in economic downtime” he said.

    Fighting Entropy

    In and outside the UK, many direct lending platforms such as Future Finance, Kabbage and Ondeck are balance sheet lenders. Other platforms use hybrid models to have skin in the game, to jumpstart the business, or to accelerate it. International platforms Mintos and Twino work as marketplace channels for banks. French “P2P lender” YounitedCredit is a bank because there was no alternative when it launched. As online direct lending continues to rapidly evolve, competition and innovation makes it a more and more diverse sector.

    There is much diversity even within the ranks of the 8 members of the UK P2P Finance Association (P2PFA) who self-impose the operating rules and standards of transparency of the association. Funding Circle, Landbay, Lending Works, Lendinvest, Market Invoice, RateSetter, Thin Cats and Zopa show a great diversity in terms of asset classes (asset-backed by invoices, real estate, or unsecured loans) and borrowers (consumer, SME). They also have more and more diverse sources of funding (retail investors, institutional investors, government, own investment funds) with Funding Circle and Zopa recently adding securitization. Finally, some maintain provision funds, although it could be regarded as a breach of the direct asset-liability matching principle.

    For Christopher Woolard, Director of Strategy & Competition at the FCA, the growing diversity of the sector is an important part of what makes it challenging to get regulation right.

    In conclusion to his speech, Lord Adair Turner recommended to platforms to “Keep it simple, Keep it transparent” in order to avoid reproducing the errors that led to the banking crisis. Simplicity seems to go against the natural tendency of the sector, like any market, to create more differentiated products and complex value chains.

    Transparency is hard work, but it seems to pay off, as seen from the success of the members of the UK P2PFA.

    Therese Torris, PhD, is a Senior Contributorto Crowdfund Insider. She is an entrepreneur and consultant in eFinance and eCommerce based in Paris. She has covered crowdfunding and P2P lending since the early days when Zopa was created in the United Kingdom. She was a director of research and consulting at Gartner Group Europe, Senior VP at Forrester Research and Content VP at Twenga. She publishes a French personal finance blog, Le Blog Finance Pratique.


    Featured Posts

    KPMG - The Pulse of Fintech Q4, 2106

    China: WeiyangX Fintech Review

    The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, Monash Business School & Tsinghua University, Join

    From cancer treatment to restaurant openings - how crowdfunding turned us all into investors.

    Ram Ahluwalia of PeerIQ Shares the Future of Online Lending

    How Crowdfunding Took On Private Equity And Won

    Brexit slowdown? There's been a 'large-scale drop' in UK startup funding for the first t

    Innovate Finance Report on VC Investment into Fintech: Up Globally, Down in the UK

    Brexit bites UK fintech as funding falls by 34% in 2016

    Germany: Investment Crowdfunding Grew by 39% in 2016

    {"items":["5fda4b180abcba0017a07b13","5fda4b180abcba0017a07b1b","5fda4b180abcba0017a07b1a","5fda4b180abcba0017a07b19","5fda4b180abcba0017a07b1c","5fda4b180abcba0017a07b17","5fda4b180abcba0017a07b16","5fda4b180abcba0017a07b18","5fda4b180abcba0017a07b15","5fda4b180abcba0017a07b14"],"styles":{"galleryType":"Strips","groupSize":1,"showArrows":true,"cubeImages":true,"cubeType":"fill","cubeRatio":"100%/100%","isVertical":false,"gallerySize":30,"collageDensity":0.8,"groupTypes":"1","oneRow":true,"imageMargin":0,"galleryMargin":0,"scatter":0,"rotatingScatter":"","chooseBestGroup":true,"smartCrop":false,"hasThumbnails":false,"enableScroll":true,"isGrid":false,"isSlider":false,"isColumns":false,"isSlideshow":true,"cropOnlyFill":false,"fixedColumns":1,"enableInfiniteScroll":true,"isRTL":false,"minItemSize":120,"rotatingGroupTypes":"","rotatingCropRatios":"","columnWidths":"","gallerySliderImageRatio":1.7777777777777777,"numberOfImagesPerRow":3,"numberOfImagesPerCol":1,"groupsPerStrip":0,"borderRadius":0,"boxShadow":0,"gridStyle":0,"mobilePanorama":false,"placeGroupsLtr":false,"viewMode":"preview","thumbnailSpacings":4,"galleryThumbnailsAlignment":"bottom","isMasonry":false,"isAutoSlideshow":true,"slideshowLoop":false,"autoSlideshowInterval":3,"bottomInfoHeight":0,"titlePlacement":"SHOW_ON_HOVER","galleryTextAlign":"center","scrollSnap":true,"itemClick":"nothing","fullscreen":true,"videoPlay":"hover","scrollAnimation":"NO_EFFECT","slideAnimation":"SCROLL","scrollDirection":1,"scrollDuration":400,"overlayAnimation":"FADE_IN","arrowsPosition":0,"arrowsSize":18,"watermarkOpacity":40,"watermarkSize":40,"useWatermark":true,"watermarkDock":{"top":"auto","left":"auto","right":0,"bottom":0,"transform":"translate3d(0,0,0)"},"loadMoreAmount":"all","defaultShowInfoExpand":1,"allowLinkExpand":true,"expandInfoPosition":0,"allowFullscreenExpand":true,"fullscreenLoop":false,"galleryAlignExpand":"left","addToCartBorderWidth":1,"addToCartButtonText":"","slideshowInfoSize":160,"playButtonForAutoSlideShow":false,"allowSlideshowCounter":false,"hoveringBehaviour":"NEVER_SHOW","thumbnailSize":120,"magicLayoutSeed":1,"imageHoverAnimation":"NO_EFFECT","imagePlacementAnimation":"NO_EFFECT","calculateTextBoxWidthMode":"PERCENT","textBoxHeight":0,"textBoxWidth":200,"textBoxWidthPercent":50,"textImageSpace":10,"textBoxBorderRadius":0,"textBoxBorderWidth":0,"loadMoreButtonText":"","loadMoreButtonBorderWidth":1,"loadMoreButtonBorderRadius":0,"imageInfoType":"ATTACHED_BACKGROUND","itemBorderWidth":0,"itemBorderRadius":0,"itemEnableShadow":false,"itemShadowBlur":20,"itemShadowDirection":135,"itemShadowSize":10,"imageLoadingMode":"BLUR","expandAnimation":"NO_EFFECT","imageQuality":90,"usmToggle":false,"usm_a":0,"usm_r":0,"usm_t":0,"videoSound":false,"videoSpeed":"1","videoLoop":true,"jsonStyleParams":"","gallerySizeType":"px","gallerySizePx":226,"allowTitle":true,"allowContextMenu":true,"textsHorizontalPadding":-30,"showVideoPlayButton":true,"galleryLayout":5,"targetItemSize":226,"selectedLayout":"5|bottom|1|fill|false|1|true","layoutsVersion":2,"selectedLayoutV2":5,"isSlideshowFont":true,"externalInfoHeight":0,"externalInfoWidth":0},"container":{"width":226,"height":288,"galleryWidth":226,"galleryHeight":127,"scrollBase":0}}
    Recent Posts

    KPMG - The Pulse of Fintech Q4, 2106

    China: WeiyangX Fintech Review

    The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, Monash Business School & Tsinghua University, Join

    From cancer treatment to restaurant openings - how crowdfunding turned us all into investors.

    Ram Ahluwalia of PeerIQ Shares the Future of Online Lending

    How Crowdfunding Took On Private Equity And Won

    Brexit slowdown? There's been a 'large-scale drop' in UK startup funding for the first t

    Innovate Finance Report on VC Investment into Fintech: Up Globally, Down in the UK

    Brexit bites UK fintech as funding falls by 34% in 2016

    Germany: Investment Crowdfunding Grew by 39% in 2016

    {"items":["5fda4b180abcba0017a07b13","5fda4b180abcba0017a07b1b","5fda4b180abcba0017a07b1a","5fda4b180abcba0017a07b19","5fda4b180abcba0017a07b1c","5fda4b180abcba0017a07b17","5fda4b180abcba0017a07b16","5fda4b180abcba0017a07b18","5fda4b180abcba0017a07b15","5fda4b180abcba0017a07b14"],"styles":{"galleryType":"Columns","groupSize":1,"showArrows":true,"cubeImages":true,"cubeType":"max","cubeRatio":1.7777777777777777,"isVertical":true,"gallerySize":30,"collageAmount":0,"collageDensity":0,"groupTypes":"1","oneRow":false,"imageMargin":22,"galleryMargin":0,"scatter":0,"rotatingScatter":"","chooseBestGroup":true,"smartCrop":false,"hasThumbnails":false,"enableScroll":true,"isGrid":true,"isSlider":false,"isColumns":false,"isSlideshow":false,"cropOnlyFill":false,"fixedColumns":0,"enableInfiniteScroll":true,"isRTL":false,"minItemSize":50,"rotatingGroupTypes":"","rotatingCropRatios":"","columnWidths":"","gallerySliderImageRatio":1.7777777777777777,"numberOfImagesPerRow":3,"numberOfImagesPerCol":1,"groupsPerStrip":0,"borderRadius":0,"boxShadow":0,"gridStyle":0,"mobilePanorama":false,"placeGroupsLtr":false,"viewMode":"preview","thumbnailSpacings":4,"galleryThumbnailsAlignment":"bottom","isMasonry":false,"isAutoSlideshow":false,"slideshowLoop":false,"autoSlideshowInterval":4,"bottomInfoHeight":0,"titlePlacement":["SHOW_ON_THE_RIGHT","SHOW_BELOW"],"galleryTextAlign":"center","scrollSnap":false,"itemClick":"nothing","fullscreen":true,"videoPlay":"hover","scrollAnimation":"NO_EFFECT","slideAnimation":"SCROLL","scrollDirection":0,"scrollDuration":400,"overlayAnimation":"FADE_IN","arrowsPosition":0,"arrowsSize":23,"watermarkOpacity":40,"watermarkSize":40,"useWatermark":true,"watermarkDock":{"top":"auto","left":"auto","right":0,"bottom":0,"transform":"translate3d(0,0,0)"},"loadMoreAmount":"all","defaultShowInfoExpand":1,"allowLinkExpand":true,"expandInfoPosition":0,"allowFullscreenExpand":true,"fullscreenLoop":false,"galleryAlignExpand":"left","addToCartBorderWidth":1,"addToCartButtonText":"","slideshowInfoSize":200,"playButtonForAutoSlideShow":false,"allowSlideshowCounter":false,"hoveringBehaviour":"NEVER_SHOW","thumbnailSize":120,"magicLayoutSeed":1,"imageHoverAnimation":"NO_EFFECT","imagePlacementAnimation":"NO_EFFECT","calculateTextBoxWidthMode":"PERCENT","textBoxHeight":60,"textBoxWidth":200,"textBoxWidthPercent":75,"textImageSpace":10,"textBoxBorderRadius":0,"textBoxBorderWidth":0,"loadMoreButtonText":"","loadMoreButtonBorderWidth":1,"loadMoreButtonBorderRadius":0,"imageInfoType":"ATTACHED_BACKGROUND","itemBorderWidth":0,"itemBorderRadius":0,"itemEnableShadow":false,"itemShadowBlur":20,"itemShadowDirection":135,"itemShadowSize":10,"imageLoadingMode":"BLUR","expandAnimation":"NO_EFFECT","imageQuality":90,"usmToggle":false,"usm_a":0,"usm_r":0,"usm_t":0,"videoSound":false,"videoSpeed":"1","videoLoop":true,"jsonStyleParams":"","gallerySizeType":"px","gallerySizePx":1000,"allowTitle":true,"allowContextMenu":true,"textsHorizontalPadding":-30,"itemBorderColor":{"themeName":"color_12","value":"rgba(78,78,78,0)"},"showVideoPlayButton":true,"galleryLayout":2,"calculateTextBoxHeightMode":"MANUAL","targetItemSize":1000,"selectedLayout":"2|bottom|1|max|true|0|true","layoutsVersion":2,"selectedLayoutV2":2,"isSlideshowFont":true,"externalInfoHeight":60,"externalInfoWidth":0.75},"container":{"width":220,"galleryWidth":242,"galleryHeight":0,"scrollBase":0,"height":null}}
    • February 2017 (11)
    • January 2017 (2)
    • November 2016 (10)
    • October 2016 (4)
    • August 2016 (1)
    • July 2016 (5)
    • June 2016 (8)
    • May 2016 (10)
    • April 2016 (19)
    • March 2016 (19)
    • February 2016 (11)
    • January 2016 (12)
    • December 2015 (1)
    • November 2015 (9)
    • October 2015 (10)
    • September 2015 (12)
    • August 2015 (19)
    • July 2015 (6)
    • June 2015 (3)
    • May 2015 (2)
    • March 2015 (2)
    • February 2015 (1)
    • January 2015 (1)
    • August 2014 (13)
    • June 2014 (1)
    • April 2014 (1)
    • March 2014 (1)
    • May 2013 (2)
    Archive
    Follow Us
    • Facebook Basic Square
    • Twitter Basic Square
    • Google+ Basic Square
    • Home

    • Listings

    • How it Works

    • News

    • Guide to ESE

    • Apply for Listing

    • Investor Registration

    • Contact

    • T&C

    • Privacy Policy

    • Regulation

    • Company Login

    • Investor Login

    • Help

    • More

      Investor Login
      Company Login

       

      © 2015 European Stock Exchange Group

       

      ESE is not regulated by any investment authority and does not broker and or arrange any transactions that require regulation. We do not trade stock or offer any advice whatsoever. Whilst we take reasonable care to ensure that information on the site is clear, fair and not misleading we do not provide any guarantee, warranty or representation as to its accuracy or completeness. The content of this website does not constitute or form part of any offer by ESE to enter into any contract or agreement nor is it a solicitation to buy or sell any investment.  This website should not be regarded as an offer or solicitation to conduct investment business, as defined by the UK Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 in any jurisdiction other than the United Kingdom. Investors who are resident in or citizens of countries other than the United Kingdom may be subject to local restrictions. This will also apply to all other jurisdictions where similar restrictions exist.  Please note that the value of investments and the income from them may fluctuate and you may not receive back the amount originally invested. Past performance is no guarantee of future performance. Currency movements may also affect the value of investments. The investments and investment services referred to on this website may not be suitable for all investors. If you are unsure as to whether the investments described in this site are suitable for you we recommend you seek professional advice from a financial adviser. ESE may not provide financial, investment or other professional advice to retail clients. Nothing on this site should be interpreted as constituting financial advice. ESE is a platform and does not arrange or raise capital for any companies listed on the platform.

      YOU SHOULD OBTAIN RELEVANT PROFESSIONAL ADVICE SPECIFIC TO YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES BEFORE MAKING ANY INVESTMENT DECISION.

      List with Us

       

      Register as an Investor

       

      Collaborate with Us

       

      Our Charter

       

      Jobs

       

      Reports

      Tools

       

      Partners

       

      The Power of PR and News

       

      Information Packs and Fee Paying

       

      Report a fault with one of our pages

       

      Features 

       

      Social 

      News

       

      The Power of Research

       

      History of Stock Exchanges

       

      Investor Certificates

       

      Investor Seats on ESE

       

      The ESE Fund

       

      Reverse Private Equity

       

      ISA Allowances 2014/2015

       

      Investor Portfolio

       

      Ticker Tape Rules 

       

      Verified by ESE

       

      V

       

      Contact

       

      Privacy Policy

       

      General Terms and Conditions

       

      Terms for Listing Companies

       

      Regulation                           *