Peer-to-Peer Finance Policy Summit
= held in London, 7 December 2012
URL = http://thefinancelab.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/P2P-Summit-Summary1.pdf
Description
"The Peer-to-Peer Finance Policy Summit explored the role of regulation in the growth of non-bank finance for consumers and small businesses. Over 80 people attended, including the chief executives of more than 15 peer-to-peer finance platforms, as well as trade body representatives, academics, policy-makers and regulatory officials.
The summit was held in partnership with Keystone Law, a leading law firm specialising in peer-topeer finance, and Nesta, the independent charity promoting social innovation. It was part of a wider Finance Innovation Lab project on disruptive finance policy, supported by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.
The Treasury added its emphasis to the summit by announcing there will be a consultation in January 2013 on how the new Financial Conduct Authority should regulate peer-to-peer loans and other forms of credit under the Financial Services Bill from April 2014. This confirmed an earlier commitment made by Lord Sassoon during the reading of the Financial Services Bill in the House of Lords.
The opening panel, chaired by BBC Economics Editor Stephanie Flanders, focused on “the role for peer-topeer finance in our economic recovery”. Stephanie was joined by Baroness Kramer (the Liberal Democrat spokesperson on the Financial Services Bill and banking reform), Graeme Fisher (the Head of Policy from the Federation of Small Businesses), Giles Andrews (Chair of the P2P Finance Association) and Darren Westlake (CEO of Crowdcube, the crowdinvesting platform).
The remarks of the panel members were recorded and are available on our website. Simon Deane-Johns, a lawyer who co-organised the summit, then explained how P2P platforms work, as well as common operational risks and controls and regulatory barriers. His presentation is also available on our website.
Participants then formed a series of smaller groups to consider how to remove the regulatory barriers to the responsible growth of the three main types of regulated peer-to-peer finance. Some groups took the perspective of peer-to-peer lending, while others looked at crowd-investing in shares or debt securities. Each group considered the different perspectives of the saver/investor, the platform operator, or the person or business trying to raise finance. Over 100 comments were generated in the course of these discussions, as briefly summarised under four main themes below.
Nesta CEO Geoff Mulgan put the most common suggestions to a closing panel of officials from the European Commission, Business Innovation and Skills, the Treasury and the Financial Services Authority. The panel operated under the Chatham House Rule. However, while no concrete commitments were made beyond the earlier Treasury announcement, it was clear that officials welcomed the innovation and competition that peer-to-peer finance platforms bring to the retail financial services market. There is clearly a willingness to consider the various issues and potential solutions that were identified." (http://thefinancelab.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/P2P-Summit-Summary1.pdf)