60% of lenders on P2P platforms earned returns of over 20%: Report

26% of them faced partial losses to their principal amounts, says lending platform

As many as 60 per cent of lenders on peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms earned a return exceeding 20 per cent, according to a report.

 

Another 8 per cent of lenders earned interest in the range of 10-20 per cent and 6 per cent got between 0 to 10 per cent, said lending platform 'Manual Lending Pulse’. The interesting part is that 26 per cent of lenders have faced partial losses to their principal amounts, indicating that P2P lending involves inherent risks.

 

It might be recalled that the Reserve Bank of India has of late flagged regulatory violations by some P2P lending platforms, prompting it to revise the guidelines that include prohibiting credit enhancements and capping aggregate exposure at Rs 50 lakh. These violations included promoting P2P lending as investment products, offering liquidity options, and functioning as deposit takers and lenders rather than just acting as intermediaries. “Such violations, when observed, have been dealt bilaterally by the RBI for remediation,” said the regulator.