Marketplace lending relies on screening and information production by investors, a major deviation from the traditional banking paradigm. Theoretically, the participation of sophisticated investors improves screening outcomes but also creates adverse selection among investors. In maximizing loan...

We exploit a nation-wide introduction of mandatory disclosure of borrowers' total credit exposures and show that sharing such information increases credit access independent of borrowers' history. Differentiating between borrowers applying to competitor banks and those reapplying to their...

Web-based financial intermediation on a peer-to-peer (P2P) basis will eventually prevail as an economically superior form of organisation compared to the traditional banking business model. P2P lending is the most popular type of crowdfunding, whereby an internet platform collects small amounts...

We investigate the influence of financial and political factors on Peer-to-Peer (P2P) platform failures in the online lending market in China. Using a competing risk model for platform survival, we show that large platforms, platforms having listed firms as large shareholders and platforms with...

We use data from the two leading P2P lending platforms on the US consumer credit market, Prosper and Lending Club, to explore the main drivers of the expansion of consumer demand for P2P credit. We exploit the heterogeneity in local credit markets at the county level to test three hypotheses: 1)...

Blockchain is a decade-old “trust machine”, and peer-to-peer (P2P) lending a decade-old alternative to banks in online platforms where lenders have limited information about borrowers. The gradual implementation of blockchain technology in P2P lending platforms facilitates safer transparent...

With thousands of co-existing and competing platforms, the Chinese peer-to-peer (P2P) lending market experienced both high growth and high failure rate. We hand collect unique data for these P2P platforms and investigate the differences in performance and survival for platforms with and without...

This paper reviews peer-to-peer (P2P) lending, its development in the UK and other countries, and assesses the business and economic policy issues surrounding this new form of intermediation. P2P platform technology allows direct matching of borrowers and lenders diversification over a large...