Post by bengilbert on Feb 25, 2014 17:00:12 GMT
I was at the p2p Finance Association's annual conference earlier today - I was invited to speak on one of the panels which had 'real' lenders and borrowers giving their experiences. A few observations:
-Sajid Javid MP, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, was there. He gave a little speech about the value of competition in the finance sector etc. He didn't say anything surprising or concrete, in my opinion. When he was pressed on the tax situation with p2p lending, he suggested that it was being looked at, but it's hard to know if there's any substance there.
At least the fact he was there suggests that there's interest in and a degree of support for p2p within government.
-A panel with the CEOs/founders of Zopa, Funding Circle, Ratesetter, Thincats and LendInvest took questions. I have to say, I was very impressed. They gave thoughtful answers about where they saw the industry going and the challenges they saw.
Speaking on possible future competition from banks, the people from Zopa and Ratesetter stressed that they don't think it's just that they can lend where banks are unable/unwilling, but that they think they can do it better than banks - better risk evaluation systems, more frequently iterated, and better technology compared with the 'spaghetti' in the banks' systems.
Funding Circle said that they thought they could offer 50-100% more loans, especially to borrowers with the greatest challenges in getting bank funding, if the tax rules didn't make it so disadvantageous to lend to higher-risk borrowers.
-Some people from the FCA spoke about the regulatory regime about to come in. They said that they were going to their board later this week with their proposal, and we should expect to find out the details next week. It still sounds to me that their proposals are sensible and should make it easier to lend with more confidence in basic things such as that platforms segregate lenders' money and there are arrangements for their loans to be taken over by a third party if they should fail.
-I got to talk to Partel of isePankur, who seems to have big plans. Apparently they got investment earlier this year or last which has allowed them to expand their team quite a lot (perhaps I can get details, if it has any value in establishing that the platform is at least a legitimate operation).
I told him that he should get more active on here!
-Sajid Javid MP, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, was there. He gave a little speech about the value of competition in the finance sector etc. He didn't say anything surprising or concrete, in my opinion. When he was pressed on the tax situation with p2p lending, he suggested that it was being looked at, but it's hard to know if there's any substance there.
At least the fact he was there suggests that there's interest in and a degree of support for p2p within government.
-A panel with the CEOs/founders of Zopa, Funding Circle, Ratesetter, Thincats and LendInvest took questions. I have to say, I was very impressed. They gave thoughtful answers about where they saw the industry going and the challenges they saw.
Speaking on possible future competition from banks, the people from Zopa and Ratesetter stressed that they don't think it's just that they can lend where banks are unable/unwilling, but that they think they can do it better than banks - better risk evaluation systems, more frequently iterated, and better technology compared with the 'spaghetti' in the banks' systems.
Funding Circle said that they thought they could offer 50-100% more loans, especially to borrowers with the greatest challenges in getting bank funding, if the tax rules didn't make it so disadvantageous to lend to higher-risk borrowers.
-Some people from the FCA spoke about the regulatory regime about to come in. They said that they were going to their board later this week with their proposal, and we should expect to find out the details next week. It still sounds to me that their proposals are sensible and should make it easier to lend with more confidence in basic things such as that platforms segregate lenders' money and there are arrangements for their loans to be taken over by a third party if they should fail.
-I got to talk to Partel of isePankur, who seems to have big plans. Apparently they got investment earlier this year or last which has allowed them to expand their team quite a lot (perhaps I can get details, if it has any value in establishing that the platform is at least a legitimate operation).
I told him that he should get more active on here!
