Peer-to-peer online platform tries to muscle in on banks' loan business

By combining discount loans with a new asset class, a group of former bankers has launched  Hong Kong’s first peer-to-peer (P2P) online lending platform.

The concept is copied from the United States and Europe. Alongside online equity crowd funding, it is being hailed as revolutionising financial services, though the full benefits are likely to be limited to wealthy investors.

“The notion that you need a big building with lots of people in it is so over,” says Israeli venture capitalist Jonathan Medved, referring to the banking industry.

An early investor in Lending Club, America’s largest online lending platform, Medved sees an “unstoppable” wave that will eventually overturn the consumer and commercial loans market.

“We are not only trying to build a P2P lending platform. We want to change the way people engage with financial transactions,” said Simon Loong, the founder of WeLab, Hong Kong’s first P2P lender.

A former regional head at Standard Chartered Bank consumer lending, Loong turned his back on the corporate world after a Stanford Business School course inspired him to look at start-ups.