Peer-to-peer lending and financial innovation in the United Kingdom - Ulrich Atz and David Bholat

Ulrich Atz () and David Bholat
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Ulrich Atz: Bank of England, Postal: Bank of England, Threadneedle Street, London, EC2R 8AH

No 598, Bank of England working papers from Bank of England

Abstract: Peer-to-peer (P2P) lending — direct lending between lenders and borrowers online outside traditional financial intermediaries like banks — first emerged in the United Kingdom and the world with the launch of Zopa in 2005. Our paper provides a quantitative analysis of nearly 14 million loan agreements. We lay bare the history of P2P lending from its beginning, showing the regional geography of P2P lending in the United Kingdom. We suggest that the history of P2P lending can shed light on financial innovation in general. We base our conclusions on four semi-structured interviews with the founders of the three most significant UK P2P platforms (Zopa, RateSetter, and Funding Circle).

Keywords: Peer-to-peer lending; crowdfunding; innovation; fintech; big data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G23 L26 O30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2016-04-29
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ban, nep-ent, nep-ino, nep-pay and nep-pke
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:boe:boeewp:0598

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