Lithuania will regulate p2p consumer lending starting February 1st, 2016.
The main requirements introduced by the new legislation in Lithuania are:
- 40K Euro of share capital required by the marketplace company,
- contingency plan in case of failure of the platform,
- limitation of 500 Euro investment per one loan,
- limitation of 5,000 Euros investment per platform for ‘inexperienced’ investors,
- marketplaces will be allowed to gain their revenue only from monthly instalments paid by borrowers. This means that all platforms will not gain revenue if their portfolio is not performing.
Laimonas Noreika, CEO of Lithuanian p2p lending company Finbee told P2P-Banking.com: ‘Once again Lithuania proved itself as a country with strict financial regulation. [The] new law gives more transparency to all – lenders, platform owners and public authorities. FinBee welcomes the regulation and invites international lenders to discover Lithuania as a country open for P2P lending.‘
Lithuania follows the example of other European countries, which introduced new legislation specifically crafted to regulate p2p lending. The UK is the most prominent example of these countries.
Other countries, for example Germany did not change or introduce new laws but rather apply the existing laws on p2p lending. In Germany it took p2p lending companies a while to find a suitable setup that complies with legislation requirements, but since the precedents have been set by the first marketplaces years ago, the regulatory practise concerning p2p lending is clear now.