UK Volume Roundup - A Steady End to A Massive First Half

June UK Alternative Finance origination volumes were slightly down on the record breaking levels seen last month but still comfortably above the £200m mark at £209m. This makes June the third largest origination month ever for the industry and tops off a record first half of the year for the Liberum AltFi Volume Index which saw the industry orignate 76% more finance than in the same period last year.

The big platforms continue to grow their origination volume rapidly. June was the first month that we have seen two platforms originate over £40m in the same month. Funding Circle regained the top spot setting themselves a new monthly volume high water mark in the process at £45m loans funded. This is just a whisker off the industry record of £45.4m set by Zopa in April of this year. Zopa stepped down to second on the June volume podium, posting their third successive month of origination volume in excess of £40m. This is a particularly impressive performance given that Zopa’s biggest month prior to this was £31.5m. As we discussed a few weeks ago, Zopa’s volume growth appears to be fuelled by institutional investment. Sitting at third for the month was RateSetter with £38.6m lent.

As the Financial Times astutely pointed out, the business lending sector of the Liberum AltFi Volume Index surpassed the consumer lending sector in the middle of June with platforms such as LendInvest and Funding Circle being the driving force behind that growth.

Aside from Funding Circle, two other platforms posted new platform lending records this month, both of them challengers to the established players in the consumer lending space: Lending Works and Lendable. Abundance Generation, Lending Works and Zopa also passed through major milestones in cumulative lending over the course of the month (£10m, £10m and £900m respectively).

Looking back at the growth over the second quarter and the first half of the year, it appears that growth rates within the industry are beginning to slow (at least on a percentage basis) with most platforms seeing lower year on year growth rates in 2Q than in 1H. Some platforms, however, are bucking the trend – Zopa’s growth rate accelerated significantly in the second quarter as did ThinCats’. Funding Circle’s growth rate remained very consistent. The table below shows the detail for the top ten platforms by market share.