Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the competitiveness of the UK peer-to-peer lending sector compared to (a) the US, (b) China and (c) the rest of the world.

The Government has introduced a robust and proportionate regulatory regime for peer-to-peer (P2P) lending, balancing the need for consumer protection with allowing the sector to grow, innovate and provide competition in the lending market.

The British Business Bank’s Small Business Finance Markets 2018/19 report sets out that P2P business lending increased to nearly £2.3bn in 2018, and assesses the P2P business lending markets in the UK, the USA and China. The report notes that the increased regulation in the P2P market in the UK has been mostly seen as positive, in contrast to China where regulators were slow to address the sector, leading to opportunities for fraudulent activity.

The UK has been independently ranked by EY and Deloitte as the world’s leading hub for Fintech – the best place in the world to start and grow a Fintech firm. The Government is committed to ensuring that it remains the best place in the world for Fintech, and has set out how it intends to do that in the ambitious Fintech Sector Strategy, launched in March 2018.