Hargreaves Lansdown to Enter P2P Lending

Hargreaves Lansdown, a stockbroker as well as the UK's largest investment fund “supermarket”, has added even more credibility to the P2P movement by confirming it will offer the service to its 675,000 customers.

(A fund supermarket is a service that gives you access to lots of investment funds from different investment fund managers.)

Hargreaves Lansdown expects that its customers might lend and borrow from each other. In an interesting move, it could let customers borrow money secured against their other savings, investments and pensions that they hold in their Hargreaves Lansdown accounts.

It could take as along as two years for the giant investments broker to get its P2P offer off the ground.

Hargreaves is the latest to show the foothold that P2P lending is establishing as a credible alternative to property, savings and share investing.

The government and hedge funds have been pouring money into P2P loans. High-street banks are referring borrowers to peer-to-peer lending companies. The UK was the first to create distinct P2P lending regulations. And the regulator recently gave the P2P industry a B-. Read Financial Regulator Gives B- Grade to P2P Lending.

Sources: Citywire.