FMA approves PledgeMe's peer-to-peer lending licence, final checks remain

Thursday 28th April 2016

The Financial Markets Authority has approved crowdfunding platform PledgeMe's application for a peer-to-peer lending licence.

PledgeMe chief executive Anna Guenther said the licence for PledgeMe.Lend will be granted once PledgeMe has met the final prerequisite conditions, including checks on its new directors and a working website before launch date.

“We’re very excited to have completed this important step towards launchingPledgeMe.Lend, which we believe will democratise debt in New Zealand,” Guenther said. “With over two-thirds of the international crowdfunding market being lending based, we realised that entering the peer-to-peer lending market was an obvious next step for PledgeMe. Allowing our campaigns to offer loan notes provides an important extra piece of the crowdfunding market in Aotearoa.”

Chair of PledgeMe's board Nick Lewis said the licence would give the company the ability to issue a loan to people using its crowdfunding services. PledgeMe is also licenced for equity crowdfunding.

New Zealand's first and biggest peer-to-peer lender is Harmoney Corp, which facilitated more than $100 million of loans through its peer-to-peer platform in its first year of operation, and there are three others licensed platforms – Squirrel Money, LendMe and Lending Crowd.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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