A sign of how alternative lending platforms can challenge fund managers for retail business comes today as LendingCrowd said it would launch an individual savings account (Isa).
LendingCrowd, a UK peer-to-peer lending platform founded in 2014, said it would launch the Isa in the first three months of the year.
Isas normally shelter cash savings and equity funds from tax, but LendingCrowd is one of the first firms to launch an alternative finance Isa.
The firm specialises in financing small and medium-sized businesses and has facilitated £9 million (€10.4 million) of loans from as small as £20,000, to over £1million.
In 2016 LendingCrowd became the UK’s second peer-to-peer lending platform, as well as the first to lend to small and medium-sized businesses, to gain full authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Stuart Lunn, chief executive and co-founder of LendingCrowd, said: “While we are not the biggest ‘P2P’ platform in the UK, the investment made in our people and technology combined with the FCA approval has positioned LendingCrowd right at the front of the market when it comes to alternative financing of UK SMEs [small and medium-sized companies].”
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