Did I get my timing right??

[dualinvestor]

......

A murky old world this P2P if you ask me!! 

Problem with P2P is, like many things, the principle is good, the practise is very bad.

It was originally introduced to the UK in the last decade by Zopa as a genuine attempt to put retail lenders and retail borrowers together but them as a middle man, rather than a bank, to take a small cut.  They never got, and still don't have, the volume to make a great deal of money from it and were severely hampered by the financial crisis of 2008.  Ratesetter came along in the early part of this decade, stole some of their market so diluted the money making pooitential, but both combined they probably still don't do the volume of a single large branch of a traditional High Street bank, certainly only a tiny proportion the volume of the internet operations of the aforesaid banks.

At about the same time as RS  FC came along and although tarnished they did manage a flotation so might be considered a success for their backers.  However they introduced the concept of individuals lending to businesses.

At the time anyone could set up a P2P platform with £35 for a consumer credit licence and access to the necessary computer and internet skills.  Some with laughingly, almost hysterically, small share capitals and few credit underwriting skills, as many have found to their cost with Lendy.

This exposed the retail lender/investor to loans hat they had no expertise in understanding and borrowers who had rarely, if ever, completed a successful project.

As you say "A murky old world this P2P"