Gabriella Kindert

• The 22-strong roundtable discussed various aspects of opportunities in the non-bank lending space including the opportunities in SME lending, the maturity of the market and the sustainability of some platforms' business models and the need for greater transparency.
• Christian Gut, manager of the P2P lending Fund, said investors need to fully understand track records of managers/funds and of how loans are performing. He said it is “really hard to understand” like-for-like comparisons when platform are changing underwriting models.  “Every country and platform is doing things in different ways. The industry should decide a certain level of credit and risk that should exist across the aboard,” he said.
• Maseco’s Matthews added that niches are well suited to alternative credit but  “you can’t throw a lot of money” at them as this would harm yields.
• RM’s Nicholl’s said that trust in the sector could be improved by third party audits leading to more capital into the sector.
• AltFi Data’s Fekete added that lenders are showing more and more interest in having their data assessed and compared on a like-for-like basis. That is a vital part of the maturation of the sector, he said.

• Will technology-enabled platform lending move into the mid market space? Thabe said to lend to the mid-market he believes every loan needs “a pair of real eyes” along side automation of certain aspects of underwriting.
• Law adds that “it is hard work in the middle”. He said online lenders will do well in the sub-200k level where as banks will dominate £10m plus.
• Kindert, head of alternative credit at NNIP, said there is some oversupply in some areas of the non-bank lending space but that in others “there are still opportunities.”
• Spotcap’s Turfboer meanwhile said that going into multiple jurisdictions is not  easy for mid market lending and added that banks and fintechs may both find it difficult to make this space profitable.

Watch the Video >