British Business Bank asked whether P2P defaults outnumber other bad loans

Former City minister Lord Myners has stepped up his pursuit of the government regarding the British Business Bank’s (BBB) exposure to bad peer-to-peer loans.

Lord Myners has issued several parliamentary questions asking for data on how many P2P loans backed by the BBB are now in default but the government has so far resisted providing this information.

His latest query asks whether the BBB’s aggregate P2P losses “differ from the aggregate experience of loans made by other channels to small – and medium-sized enterprise borrowers.”

He is also still awaiting a response to that and another query on whether the number of P2P defaults in the BBB portfolio has increased or decreased over the past three years.

The government has so far refused to divulge both individual and aggregate data on P2P loans within the BBB portfolio.

However, it did last week disclose that it had an overall exposure of £102.9m as of 31 March 2019 and £101.3m as of 30 September 2019 to P2P loans.

The BBB has previously channelled funds via P2P platforms RateSetter and Funding Circle, as well as former P2P platforms ThinCats and MarketInvoice (which has since rebranded to MarketFinance).

A spokesman for the BBB told Peer2Peer Finance News last year that anyone seeking funds from the BBB must go through a rigorous application process that details the investment structure and strategy as well as elements such as how funds are deployed, the returns and its track record.

It may also conduct background and referencing checks and interviews with current, previous and potential investors.