LONDON, June 24 (Reuters) - Britain's oldest peer-to-peer
lending platform Zopa has been awarded a full banking licence by
regulators, becoming the latest online player to expand into
traditional banking services in a bid to boost profitability.
The London-based business launched in 2005 and approves
around 1 billion pounds ($1.25 billion) of personal loans a year
through its peer-to-peer platform, which brings together
individual borrowers and lenders without a bank being involved.
The company has been working towards obtaining a full
banking licence for at least three years and was boosted in
December by securing a 140 million pound funding round.
A full licence enables a lender to take customer deposits
that are guaranteed up to 85,000 pounds under a state-backed
protection scheme and to provide a wider range of lending
services.
Zopa said it planned to launch a fixed-term savings account
before later introducing a credit card.
"Securing our banking licence enables Zopa to play a wider
role in the financial lives of our customers, as well as
offering much needed choice and competition to
the wider market," Zopa CEO Jaidev Janardana said in a
statement.
($1 = 0.7988 pounds)
(Reporting by Iain Withers; Editing by Susan Fenton)