The LendIt team is excited to be back in London this year for our third annual LendIt Europe conference on October 10-11. We are privileged to be partnering, for the second year, with the UK P2P Finance Association, the leading trade association for our industry in Europe. Registration is now open.
It has been fascinating to watch the industry in Europe this year and in particular these past few weeks. While not completely immune to the bearish sentiments in the U.S. it has become clear that the market in Europe is different. When I have spoken with platforms there recently they have said that investor demand is still strong. While they have all had to deal with questions arising from the Lending Club saga they have not seen much in the way of reduced demand from investors.
Lord Adair Turner to Keynote at LendIt Europe
We will have some of the biggest names in financial services speaking at LendIt Europe. The former head of the UK Financial Services Authority (now the FCA), Lord Adair Turner, will be one of our major keynote speakers. In February this year he famously spoke out against the P2P lending industry and we will all get to hear first hand if his views have changed since that time.
The Largest European Marketplace Lending Event of the Year
With 1,000 people expected for LendIt Europe 2016 this year’s event will be the largest marketplace lending conference in Europe in 2016. We are still putting the preliminary agenda together but, in addition to Lord Turner, we expect to have the leaders of every major European platform speaking at LendIt Europe.
Like last year we will be kicking things off with the CEO of Funding Circle, Samir Desai. We will also hear from Christine Farnish, the Chair of the P2PFA, who will be reviewing the UK regulations now that all the platforms have been living with it for a while.
We will have a morning plenary session each day and then in the afternoon we will break into three separate tracks. Each track will be tackling a different topic: consumer lending, small business/property lending, investor challenges, credit risk and underwriting, regulatory and international developments. A full preliminary agenda will be available shortly.
Early Bird Pricing Open Until June 17
If you are thinking about attending LendIt Europe you will get the best deal if you act quickly. Early bird pricing of £695 will be in place until June 17. After June 17 the price goes up to £995. As always with LendIt events Lend Academy readers receive a special discount. When you register just enter the code LENDACADEMYVIP into the discount field at checkout for a 15% discount off the price.
I hope to see many of you at LendIt Europe 2016.
Peter Renton is the chairman and co-founder of LendIt Fintech, the world’s first and largest digital media and events company focused on fintech. Peter has been writing about fintech since 2010 and he is the author and creator of the Fintech One-on-One Podcast, the first and longest-running fintech interview series. Peter has been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The New York Times, CNBC, CNN, Fortune, NPR, Fox Business News, the Financial Times, and dozens of other publications.