Zopa is to exit the peer-to-peer lending market that it pioneered, in the latest sign of the decline of the once promising industry.
Jaidev Janardana, chief executive, said that it would close its peer-to-peer book in January after concluding it was no longer “commercially viable”.
Zopa was founded in 2005 and invented the online peer-to-peer model, matching individual investors with borrowers. The initial idea was for a fairer finance system than provided by traditional banks and credit card providers.
Scores of rival platforms subsequently launched, arranging for hundreds of thousands of people to lend tens of billions of pounds to consumers and small businesses.
However, Janardana told AltFi, a fintech trade publication, that tighter regulation of the industry and growing negative sentiment towards it during
