New players in the Peer to Peer Market – Kikka Capital

I noticed today and announcement of a new player coming into the peer-to-peer lending Australian market later this year. They are called Kikka capital and state that they will be able to provide working capital loan approval within seven minutes. I’m unclear what this means by approval, maybe I am mistaken, but I must say that typically when I speak to clients or the clients who list with us we do say that it’s not so much approval, as we dont approve loans, what occurs is that your loan will meet criteria that enables it to be listed on our marketplace for investors to participate in part or whole.

If it is the case that they can quickly approve the loan and fund the loan within that period of time as well, this will definitely be a very competitive product and a new concept to the market. What I do find surprising is how it meets the peer-to-peer concept as typically a peer to peer lender needs to get investors to actually look at that risk and determine whether they wish to participate in it. But who I am I to critize, the fact of the matter is there are a lot of different models out there and the word peer-to-peer lending is a fairly generic concept albiet the fact that both Ratesetter and Marketlend in Australia presently have trademark applications for the words peer-to-peer lending.

My response back to people who ask the question am I concerned or do you welcome new competitors in the marketplace, is a response the majority of existing peer-to-peer lenders in the Australian market would say, that is we welcome new players coming into the market. The more exposure and the more competitive environment places more attention on this business and hopefully over time a high percentage of the population of Australia will understand what peer-to-peer lending is and why it is an investment or a borrowing avenue that they should consider.

For Marketlend we presently offer a note trading exchange, where lenders can trade notes, or loans via our website, initially for Marketlend loans or notes, and subsequently other peer to peer lenders loans in the marketplace. It is this exchange that will bear fruit for us if there are more players in the market, and with our proprietary rating technology we rate their loans that their investors own and list them on the marketplace at no cost to the seller. We anticipate the peer to peer lenders in the market will welcome this solutions as its a win win for all as we give investors liquidity, other providers the ability to offer liquidity and more transparency to all.

Leo Tyndall
Marketlend