The keynote speaker for the Finance Professional Show – held yesterday (7th November) at Olympia London – was asked how his personal opinion of the P2P market as a whole had changed since the launch of Zopa in 2005, and his outlook of the sector's future. 

“I think what we have seen is people coming in and adopting the [P2P] model and quite often targeting different niches,” James answered.

“As with any industry and, in particular, any new sector, there [are] good people and there are bad people.

“There are people that run businesses well and people that run businesses badly.

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“Today, we’ve got good banks and bad banks. 

“There are banks that went bust in the crash and banks that didn’t. 

“And I think we have started to see that.

“So, my expectation is there has been proliferation and I expect there to be more. 

“And there will be consolidation.

“Because it’s a marketplace, you can’t have zillions of marketplaces. 

“I think there [will] be few big winners.” 

Having served as CEO and board director at Zopa, James moved away from the business to become a partner at The Foundation in 2010.

James is now a director at FutureAgenda.org, a foresight, strategy and innovation advisory. 

He also continues to advise a number of fintech players, including Giffgaff Gameplan, Seedrs, Loot, Environmental Finance and LandBay.