Chancellor George Osborne’s announcement in the Budget that peer-to-peer loans are to be allowed into the New ISA (NISA) represents about the biggest shot in the arm so far for the P2P movement. It’s not yet clear when this change will come into effect - all the Treasury has said so far is that it will launch a consultation later this year on how to implement its plans. This could involve P2P platforms launching their own NISA wrappers for lenders to use and/or existing providers widening the range of assets they can accept to include P2P loan parts. A Treasury working party that includes representatives from the P2P platforms as well as traditional investment platforms is considering the issues and will help to frame the consultation.

There is much to gain for the P2P industry in these changes. The increase in the annual NISA allowance from £11,880 to £15,000 from this July will significantly boost the potential size of the ISA market. But beyond that, allowing P2P loans into NISAs will help to make P2P lending a mainstream choice for a much larger group of people. This should significantly accelerate the movement’s growth as well as addressing one of the key complaints about the existing regime among individual lenders: that they cannot write off losses against profits for tax purposes.

The Peero to Peer Finance Association (P2PFA) Conference took place on Tuesday 25th February at the offices of Pricewaterhouse Coopers(PwC) in London.

The event was attended by The Treasury, the regulators- The Financial Conduct Authority and the Office of Fair Trading, all the main Peer to Peer (P2P) exchanges, industry commentators, policy makers and professionals. Also several European Commercial attachés -all testament to the interest in and the importance of this growing sector where the UK is seen as having the most developed market in Europe.

I am a frequent user of many of the P2P sites. I try to get a balance between short-term liquidity and making sure my cash is working and earning interest. I have participated in both of Relendex’s auctions as a lender.

Given the near-plethora of sites now around, why do I use Relendex? The main reasons are excellent rates and security in the first auction the rate was fixed just below 9.00%, and in the second auction the rate was 10%, and you are lending against property with a relatively low loan-to-value ratio (so a lot of protection if the loan were to go wrong). And the team at Relendex understand property- it is clear that they are adopting a very conservative approach to the loans they take on, and have the skills to sort issues were they to arise.