P2P Lender Zopa Introduces Waiting List For New Investors

Zopa, the peer-to-peer lender in the U.K., has created a waiting list for investors who want to get access to the online marketplace.

According to a report, Zopa introduced the waiting list, making it apply to both institutional and individual investors. The move, noted the report, followed on the heels of its move to “platform limit,” which was introduced in December. The platform limit enables Zopa to stop taking in new investor funds when it’s taking too much time for deployment of funds from various investment accounts. The report noted Zopa is always monitoring the times, or those taken for new investor money to go to borrowers, and can halt new investments temporarily as a result. With the wait list, the report noted Zopa is trying to give “a greater weight of emphasis on existing investors” by slowing down the addition of new customers. Zopa isn’t sure how long the waiting list will last but said it will ensure it won’t be for long.

“Zopa is committed to our loyal lending customers, many of whom have invested through Zopa for over a decade,” said Zopa’s Chief Product Officer Andrew Lawson in the report. “As we continue to grow, it is extremely important for us to prioritize our existing customers. Too often, financial services providers offer new customers their best deals; at Zopa, we don’t think that’s right.”

For the month of February, Zopa said it had a strong month with £81 million lent to consumers, marking a 41 percent year-over-year growth rate. Zopa, which is U.K.’s oldest marketplace lender, announced in late January that it had become the first peer-to-peer lending platform to reach a $2.5 billion origination threshold. The company also revealed that it had serviced 300,000 loans, matching 246,000 borrowers with 75,000 investors since 2005.