Government’s support for fintech questioned as P2P lenders ‘blocked’ from Bank of England funding

A senior analyst has questioned the government’s support for the fintech sector amid reports that alternative lenders have been excluded from indirectly accessing Bank of England funding.

Alternative lenders such as RateSetter have previously suggested Bank of England emergency funding could be channelled through their platforms so it gets to businesses faster.

However, it was reported in The Sunday Times that this has been blocked by large banks, which has been labelled as unfair by Goodbody analyst John Cronin.

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“From an outside in perspective, it seems that the UK governments’ stated support for fintech and competition in banking are mere platitudes – and that the protection of the large-scale lenders is the clear priority,” Cronin said.

“We have previously written about the completely unlevel playing field facing challenger banks and we have seen no progress to address the shortcomings.

“We reiterate that we see this as a governmental issue – not a Bank of England or monetary authority issue.”

RateSetter suggested in March that the Bank of England should channel funding through P2P lenders.

Rhydian Lewis, chief executive of RateSetter, told Peer2Peer Finance News that this wasn’t a bailout for P2P lending platforms. Instead, he pointed out that many P2P firms are better placed to provide debt funding than banks.

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