SocietyOne surpasses $300m in loans issued
Australian P2P lending platform SocietyOne reached a milestone this week. The company has surpassed $300 million in loans issued since it was founded in 2011, reports Finovate (Banking Technology’s sister company).
During a time when P2P lending in the US is under scrutiny, SocietyOne is reporting an increasing demand for P2P lending in Australia. In the first two quarters of 2017, lending on the SocietyOne platform is up 67% compared to the same period last year. In fact, the P2P lending environment seems to be healthy across Australia. SocietyOne competitor RateSetter recently reported that its funding amount has roughly doubled since December of 2016.
SocietyOne CEO Jason Yetton says this “growing interest” proves that the company is “offering a better deal than the major banks and providing investors attractive risk-adjusted returns is making a real different in the marketplace for personal loans”.
Yetton adds: “Over the past 12 months, we have had more than 140,000 Australians enquire about a loan with SocietyOne which shows that consumers are responding in large numbers to the idea they can leverage their good credit history to get a better deal.”
SocietyOne presented its P2P lending platform at FinovateAsia 2012 in Singapore. The company offers borrowers personalised repayment programmes with lower interest rates than major banks. Users can borrow between $5,000 to $50,000 for unsecured, personal loans for two, three, or five year terms.
The SocietyOne platform hosts 315 lenders offering to lend an aggregate of $68.3 million. It has aligned itself heavily with Australia-based Westpac. In 2014, SocietyOne received a $5 million Series A investment from Westpac . Since then, the company appointed a former Westpac executive as CEO in 2016 and another former Westpac executive as chief investment officer in 2017.
