Peer-to-peer lending is all very trendy – but should we buy it?

Peer-to-peer lending generates a lot of hype. David C Stevenson looks at the numbers to see if investors are right to be excited.

The numbers are in, and they're looking good.

The alternative-finance industry in general and peer-to-peer (P2P) lending in particular makes a big noise about publishing its data. And the big platforms, such as Zopa, RateSetter and Funding Circle are paragons of transparency.

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David C. Stevenson
Contributor

David Stevenson has been writing the Financial Times Adventurous Investor column for nearly 15 years and is also a regular columnist for Citywire. He writes his own widely read Adventurous Investor SubStack newsletter at davidstevenson.substack.com

David has also had a successful career as a media entrepreneur setting up the big European fintech news and event outfit www.altfi.com as well as www.etfstream.com in the asset management space. 

Before that, he was a founding partner in the Rocket Science Group, a successful corporate comms business. 

David has also written a number of books on investing, funds, ETFs, and stock picking and is currently a non-executive director on a number of stockmarket-listed funds including Gresham House Energy Storage and the Aurora Investment Trust. 

In what remains of his spare time he is a presiding justice on the Southampton magistrates bench.