Regulation and the speed of change: the P2P experience

Thirty-six months after the creation of a bespoke regulatory regime for the peer-to-peer lending sector, only a small proportion of platforms have been successfully authorised and the Financial Conduct Authority now wants to create new rules. Gillian Roche-Saunders discusses whether lessons can be learnt.

Gillian Roche-Saunders is a partner at Bates Wells Braithwaite where she runs the regulatory consultancy, BWB Compliance. She has worked with over 40 alternative finance platforms including peer-to-peer lenders and crowdfunding platforms, assisting them through authorisation and compliance support once fully regulated. Contact her on g.roche-saunders@bwbllp.com.

Once seen as the vanguard of the UK’s initiative to establish itself as the global centre for FinTech, peer-to-peer lending, or P2P lending, has been having a tough time lately.