In nine months of this year, 329 million euro has been invested in loans through Latvian peer-to-peer lending platforms, according to data from the Alternative Financial Services Association of Latvia. This year in three fiscal quarters, the volume of investments increased nearly threefold in comparison to the same period in the previous year, when 141 million euro was invested through Latvian platforms.

“By significantly increasing performance indicators each quarter, Latvian peer-to-peer lending platforms have made a name for Latvia as an industry leader in Europe’s financial technology services market. However, the co-financing platform draft law currently announced in the State Secretaries’ meeting will be critical to future growth and development. Businesses in the industry welcome the Finance Ministry’s project, which is intended to cover all market participants, creating a regulatory framework for the deployment and administration of credit claims on co-financing platforms,” emphasizes Gints Āboltiņš, director of the Alternative Financial Services Association of Latvia. Āboltiņš also notes that, if the law, which clearly defines the requirements for different types of platforms within a single regulatory act, passes, Latvia could become the best practices example in Europe, where many countries have not even begun to work on regulatory framework in this field.

In this year’s third quarter, 123 million euro was invested through platforms operating in Latvia; this is 10%, or 11.2 million euro, more than this year’s second quarter.

Since the launch of Latvia’s first peer-to-peer lending platform in January 2015, more than 540 million euro in credit investments have been made through Latvian platforms.

Multiple types of credit are funded through Latvia’s platforms — both for small- and medium-sized businesses, as well as for private individuals. Credit from more than 10 countries — including Lithuania, Estonia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Spain, China, and others — are funded through Latvian platforms.