survey

Survey Open for New Study on Asian Fintech

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The University of Cambridge, Monash Business School and Tsinghua University launch the 2016-2017 Asia Pacific Alternative Finance Industry Survey with the support of major industry associations across the region.

The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance at University of Cambridge Judge Business School, Australian Centre for Financial Studies at Monash University and Tsinghua University Graduate School at Shenzhen are teaming up to launch the 2016-2017 Asia-Pacific Region Alternative Finance Industry Survey with the support of more than 20 major industry organisations across the region. This is the largest regional study to date focused on crowdfunding, peer-to-peer lending & other forms of alternative finance.

From equity-based crowdfunding to peer-to-peer consumer and business lending, invoice trading to reward-based crowdfunding, these alternative financing activities are supplying credit to SMEs, providing venture capital to start-ups, offering more diverse and transparent ways for consumers to invest or borrow money, nurturing creativity, fostering innovation, generating jobs & funding worthwhile social causes across the Asia Pacific region.

Opening on February 15th 2017, this benchmarking survey aims to capture the key trends, developments, size, transaction volume and growth as well as the impact of changing regulations on the alternative finance markets across Asia in 2016 – building on last year’s inaugural study.

Last year’s inaugural report – Harnessing Potential – gathered survey data from 503 leading alternative finance platforms operating in 17 Asia-Pacific countries and regions. The study was cited by over 100 mainstream media organisations and has informed policymakers and regulators of industry developments in Asia Pacific countries including Malaysia, Singapore, India, Australia, Hong Kong and Indonesia for example. The report estimated the total Asia-Pacific online alternative finance market to have grown 323% year-on-year to reach 102.81 billion USD in 2015. China is the world’s largest market by transaction volume, registering 101.7 billion in 2015. Outside mainland China, the rest of the APAC region accrued 1.12 billion USD in 2015 with a 313% year-on-year growth rate from the 271.94 million raised in 2014. The authors hope this year’s study will dive even deeper into the growth and dynamics of the APAC alternative finance market. Continue reading →

German Investors Look Beyond Borders when Using P2P Lending

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A poll conducted by P2P-Kredite.com among seasoned German speaking investors found, that many prefer p2p lending platforms outside the country they live in. After getting accustomed to the p2p lending concept and liking it, they are on a hunt for higher yields. Further supporting factors are the offered English language interface (a language most understand well), the easy transfer of funds within the Eurozone by SEPA payments and more features offered, e.g. most foreign platforms offer a secondary market, while currently none of the German marketplaces do.

German poll
Poll by P2P-Kredite.com, conducted in June 2016. 60 respondents. Each respondent could name up to 6 platforms. Note that Funding Circle refers to the German platform of Funding Circle, not Funding Circle UK.

Mintos (53 votes) and Twino (43 votes) lead by a wide margin in preference of the respondents, followed then by Bondora (21), Estateguru (15), Viventor (15), Saving Stream (10), Moneything (7) and Finbee (7).
Exclusively baltic and british platforms rank best among the respondents. The choice of british platforms for German investors is limited though as some like Zopa or Ratesetter are open only to UK residents or require a UK bank account to sign up.
Nearly all votes were cast before the Brexit decision. It remains to be seen how the UK platforms will rank in German investor preference in the future, given the more volatile GBP/EUR rates and the increased uncertainty for the UK economy.