New Zealand’s peer-to-peer lending and equity crowdfunding sectors grew steadily over the past year, according to the latest figures from the Financial Markets Authority (FMA).
The report, which covers the year to end of June 2020, shows there are now more than 34,000 registered investors on Kiwi P2P platforms.
The number of investors with open investments increased only slightly (rising to 12,800) but the total amount of outstanding loans on the lending platforms books was NZ$624 million, up 8 per cent over the previous year.
The FMA points out this is a substantial increase from 2017 when there were 8,000 open investments and approximately NZ$360 million in outstanding loans. Harmoney remains New Zealand’s largest P2P lending service provider accounting for more than half the industry’s outstanding loans.
However, Harmoney’s decision to withdraw from accepting retail lenders in April 2020 will have an impact in subsequent year’s annual data returns.
Meanwhile, equity crowdfunding providers raised NZ $16.5 million from retail investors in the year to June 2020, up 20 per cent on 2019.
Licensed crowdfunding platforms introduced 25 successful offers, compared to 19 in the previous year. 5,300 investors were using the licensed service in 2020. The total money raised by crowdfunding platforms was NZ$34 million, including from retail and other wholesale investors.