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08/02/2021
Sneakypeer Newsletter Week 7
Welcome back to the Sneakypeer newsletter! Below you will find industry highlights from last week.
Lemonway reports over 3 million pounds in transactions
Lemonway, a France-based institution that offers payment processing services to marketplaces, crowdfunding platforms, and other companies, has recently reported that it experienced a 24 percent growth in turnover in 2020, despite the ongoing pandemic. Although the company achieved a great increase in turnover compared to 2019, Damien Guermonprez, executive chairman of Lemonway, admitted that the numbers would be twice as high if Covid-19 had not caused a worldwide crisis.
Lemonway has also revealed to have ambitious plans for the upcoming year- the company anticipates doubling its 2020 turnover, as well as creating new strategic alliances with other companies such as METRO and Acer. To achieve its goal of generating 5 million in transactions in 2021, the company additionally intends to expand to Germany and the Baltic countries.
The peer-to-peer industry declared as one of the top targets for money launderers
National Crime Agency (NCA), the national law enforcement agency in the United Kingdom, has proclaimed that the peer-to-peer industry is exceptionally sensitive to fraud and money laundering, coming in second to payment service providers. According to NCA, peer-to-peer platforms tend to overlook the source of the money being invested. The large size of the industry comes as a benefit to fraudsters, as it makes it more simple to use multiple different accounts and platforms for transactions. NCA urges platforms to be vigilant and always report any suspicious activity.
Lendinvest predicts a busy upcoming year for the bridging market
LendInvest, a property lending and investing platform based in the UK, expects the prices and demand within the stamping market to increase in late 2021. The director of bridging at LendInvest, Justin Trowse, predicts that prices will drop after the end of the stamp duty holiday on March 31, as the economy will begin to feel the impact of the rising rates of unemployment.
The situation will, however, improve later on in the year when homeowners will become increasingly more interested in projects in suburban areas, consequently generating higher demand for investors. Trowse also warns to expect lenders to become more aggressive on pricing, as there is currently a heightened need to originate loans. This is a recent result of the UK government flooding banks with 200 billion pounds from quantitative easing, but the Bank of England not intending to pay higher rates anytime soon.
