Do lenders ever read the small print?

You're absolutely right.

Coincidentally (I'm sure) both the directors are civil servants in their dayjobs.

What we need to recognise is that a substantial minority of p2p investors are just savers who can't get any interest from the banks. They wouldn't ordinarily get involved in anything this risky: they simply feel they have no choice unless they want their purchasing power to be decimated.

Add to that the fact there's nothing to stop people taking out bank loans of 7% then 'investing' in these crazy loans at 12% and you can see what's really going on here.

It's not just this platform, it's the whole sector. Sure in a free society with sound money backed by gold, it'd be a step forward. In the funny-money economy of cash  created out of thin air, it's just one more way to increase indebtedness.

It always amazes me that people think pubs can ever work under the current régime, but at least it's in the productive sector!
Nothing worse than handing our hard-earned savings to public sector outsourcers as off-the-books government borrowing, only to see them rapidly default on the loan because they hate money and regard us as parasites!
Still, even if you don't think a northern pub can make a go of it (and there's a dozen a week going out of business, with yet more punitive regulatory interference to come next year), if the application's filled you're still taking the risk: your money is lent to the platform not the individual companies. The question isn't what's backing the companies but what's backing the platform. 

I don't know about you but when I saw the video recently of another pub chain, my heart sank. It was just a tale of excessive and rather reckless indebtedness.

The whole world's upside down right now. The wake-up for p2p 'investors' is that we're doing it because we can't get 3%+ from bank bonds. Sure it's a nice ego trip to say "I hold various SME investments in a diversified portfolio in the alt-finance market" but the reality is we're risking our principal to chase returns we would historically have always otherwise got by safer means: we're dancing to Mark Carney and George Osborne's tune.

I bet this gets censored: you're just not allowed to criticise your wise overlords.

Many thanks Jimbo. These really do feel like the end times don't they?   :c

It's sad. 

I'm a bit concerned that people may very well be using credit cards and/or money they borrowed at a lower rate in order to lend through p2p.
In the end, we may very well be part of the problem, increasing the money supply even further, topping up off-the-books government (outsourcer) borrowing and encouraging marginal debtors back into the credit market.

In a free society with sound money, this whole thing would be wonderful but a lot of us rushed in without really weighing up the many ways in which the funny-money system would end up trickling in.

Thanks again for your tolerance.

On the other hand, financial markets are just like a herd of cattle thundering across the plains - if the leader turns for no apparent reason, the rest just follow.  And wasn't it that arch doomsayer Peston reporting this morning?  He's been looking for another doom & gloom story for about five years to maintain his reputation.

Speaking as an economist who knows the limitations of the subject, I rarely believe what a bunch of economists say!  Always look for the thoughtful comments of the minority - and make your own interpretation.

Fastfox, you echo my sentiments and it now appears those of members of the BOE Financial Committee. Mark my words the flight to the bright shinny stuff could just be around the corner.

I'm frankly well and truly beyond listening and paying any attention to many self appointed experts. My goodness, a couple were forecasting the FTSE would be well above 7500 before year end and one going as far as 8000. As usual though those self appointed experts will be invited back to give their views for 2015 and no doubt pick up (yet) another fee.

As couple of years ago one prominent investment analyst suggested that AppleCorp shares were vastly undervalued at US$500 each - they should be nearer the US$1000 mark. Then it was discovered that this analyst worked for a company that had a nice juicy holding in AppleCorp and were waiting to offload. Co-incidence - I think not.

There are reports that Ireland is out of the doldrums. Oh really, the average household is carrying massive negative equity in their properties. So an economy (not Ireland), dips by say 5% during one qtr then another 5% the next. They are in recession. Then the next qtr they grow by 0.1% and they are out of recession. Please give me a break. On second thoughts make that two.

Of course any downturn in the economy will impact P2P but provided the security is in place then IMO it will be minimal. It may even get those miser banks to cut back even further on their lending so there will also be opportunities.