Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to make an assessment of the potential level of fraud in (a) peer to peer lending and (b) crowdfunding.

The Government takes matters of fraud extremely seriously. We continue to work closely with industry to close down the vulnerabilities that fraudsters exploit and ensure members of the public have the information they need to spot a scam and stand up to fraudsters.

We set up the Joint Fraud Taskforce to help build a collaborative law enforcement, government and industry response to tackling fraud. The Taskforce have already delivered on initiatives such as Take Five (the fraud awareness campaign). The Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) ScamSmart website also aims to help consumers protect themselves against investment scams, by allowing users to search a warning list to check an investment opportunity and report scams or unauthorised firms.

The FCA has a broad range of powers to oversee the peer to peer (P2P) and parts of the crowdfunding sectors. Moreover, P2P lending and investment-based crowdfunding are regulated activities under Financial Services Markets Act (FSMA 2000).

HM Treasury works closely with the FCA on an ongoing basis to understand what risks it has identified in the sectors it regulates, including the potential for an increase in fraud.