Innovate Finance’s 36H Group absorbed into trade body
Innovate Finance has disbanded its 36H Group due to the maturity of the sector, with its firms becoming full members of the fintech trade body instead.
The 36H Group was set up in 2020 as a sub-group within Innovate Finance and was supposed to be the new voice of the peer-to-peer lending industry, replacing the Peer-to-Peer Finance Association.
Mike Carter, policy lead for lending platforms at Innovate Finance, said that as a result of the maturation of the sector, P2P lending is now one of the industry verticals within the trade body’s membership alongside regtech, small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) lending, buy now pay later and crypto, without the need for a separate group.
“Our P2P members are now all full members of Innovate Finance with full access to all our services,” he told Peer2Peer Finance News.
“This is part of our integrated approach to Innovate Finance members’ business needs, recognising that P2P platforms have broader interests than just P2P-specific issues.
“Current examples of this include the consumer duty for consumer lending platforms and British Business Bank loan guarantee schemes for SME platforms, where Innovate Finance provides extensive input and support to members including P2P platforms.
Read more: Who represents P2P platforms? A need-to-know of the sector’s trade bodies
“Our policy team will continue to respond to P2P consultations and issues as we do across all key fintech verticals.”
The 36H Group’s founding members comprised Assetz Capital, Funding Circle, RateSetter, Lending Works and Zopa, who have all since left the retail P2P lending market, and CrowdProperty which remains committed to retail investors.
Proplend and Lendwise are also members of Innovate Finance.