The Tax Incentivised Savings Association (TISA) has launched a peer-to-peer lending forum to help develop policy recommendations for regulators and legislators and address operational challenges and determine best practice.
Jake Wombwell-Povey, CEO of Goji Holdings Limited will chair the new Forum. Gill Cardy, Insight Consultant at Defaqto and Guy Tolhurst, Managing Director, Intelligent Partnership will be the deputy chairs.
The new P2P Forum will focus on the following four key areas:
- Building an effective dialogue with the FCA, HMRC and HM Treasury
- Developing standardised terminology, operational technology, data governance principles and best practice
- Enhancing accessibility to the sector by improving the understanding of intermediaries, discretionary managers, consumers and related parties including PI insurers
- Identifying unintended regulatory and technical blockages – for example in relation to the inclusion of P2P within SIPPs – and proposing solutions
The impetus to create a forum follows a P2P seminar held by TISA in April to coincide with the introduction of the Innovative Finance ISA – which enables loans made through peer to peer platforms to be held within the ISA wrapper. TISA subsequently held an open meeting with the peer to peer community at the end of July to determine whether there was sufficient support for a Forum and, if so, what key areas it should seek to address.
Jeffrey Mushens, technical director at TISA, said: “The appetite for TISA to create this forum for the P2P community was clearly demonstrated at the open meeting and we are pleased to be able to respond. Peer-to-peer is a growing sector and the innovative finance ISA will help increase its popularity. Identifying best practice and standardising procedures will enable peer-to-peer providers to better showcase the sector to intermediaries and discretionary managers. It will also help to facilitate a more effective dialogue with the FCA and the Treasury.
It’s important to stress that the forum will not be a trade body for the sector. These exist already and the approach of the forum will be to work collaboratively with other industry organisations, as TISA does in other sectors. It will also be for the forum participants to determine the agenda, with TISA providing support services and a cross-industry perspective from our other members.”
TISA is a not-for-profit membership association operating within the financial services industry and representing the interests of over 145 member firms involved in the supply and distribution of savings and investment products and services.
P2P lending is a cost efficient way to finance personal loans and small business debts. P2P providers typically operate online to minimise various costs. By removing the bank as a middleman, P2P platforms are able to deliver a greater potential return to investors and a lower rate to borrowers. This method of finance has become increasingly popular among retail investors, raising more than £6 billion in the last ten years. It is now eligible for inclusion within ISAs and Pensions and retail investment advisers can now offer regulated advice on peer to peer investments.