P2P Lending

P2P Lending

Peer-to-peer (P2P) lending enables individuals to obtain loans directly from other individuals, cutting out the financial institution as the middleman through

Peer-to-peer (P2P) lending is a form of financial technology that allows people to lend or borrow money from one another without going through a bank.

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P2P lending offers both secured and unsecured loans. However, most of the loans in P2P lending are unsecured personal loans. Secured loans are rare for the industry and are usually backed by luxury goods. Due to some unique characteristics, peer-to-peer lending is considered as an alternative source of financing.

How Does Peer-to-Peer Lending Work?

Peer-to-peer lending is a fairly straightforward process. All the transactions are carried out through a specialized online platform. The steps below describe the general P2P lending process:

  1. A potential borrower interested in obtaining a loan completes an online application on the peer-to-peer lending platform.
  2. The platform assesses the application and determines the risk and credit rating of the applicant. Then, the applicant is assigned the appropriate interest rate.
  3. When the application is approved, the applicant receives the available options from the investors based on his credit rating and assigned interest rates.
  4. The applicant can evaluate the suggested options and choose one of them.
  5. The applicant is responsible for paying periodic (usually monthly) interest payments and repaying the principal amount at maturity.

The company that maintains the online platform charges a fee for both borrowers and investors for the provided services.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Peer-to-Peer Lending

Peer-to-peer lending provides some significant advantages to both borrowers and lenders:

  • Higher returns to the investors: P2P lending generally provides higher returns to the investors relative to other types of investments.
  • More accessible source of funding: For some borrowers, peer-to-peer lending is a more accessible source of funding than conventional loans from financial institutions. This may be caused by the low credit rating of the borrower or atypical purpose of the loan.
  • Lower interest rates: P2P loans usually come with lower interest rates because of the greater competition between lenders and lower origination fees.

Nevertheless, peer-to-peer lending comes with a few disadvantages:

  • Credit risk: Peer-to-peer loans are exposed to high credit risks. Many borrowers who apply for P2P loans possess low credit ratings that do not allow them to obtain a conventional loan from a bank. Therefore, a lender should be aware of the default probability of his/her counterparty.
  • No insurance/government protection: The government does not provide insurance or any form of protection to the lenders in case of the borrower’s default.
  • Legislation: Some jurisdictions do not allow peer-to-peer lending or require the companies that provide such services to comply with investment regulations. Therefore, peer-to-peer lending may not be available to some borrowers or lenders.

What is Mutual Fund

A mutual fund is a pool of money managed by a professional Fund Manager.

It is a trust that collects money from a number of investors who share a common investment objective and invests the same in equities, bonds, money market instruments and/or other securities. And the income / gains generated from this collective investment is distributed proportionately amongst the investors after deducting applicable expenses and levies, by calculating a scheme’s “Net Asset Value” or NAV. Simply put, the money pooled in by a large number of investors is what makes up a Mutual Fund.

How Mutual Fund Works

Here’s a simple way to understand the concept of a Mutual Fund Unit.
Let’s say that there is a box of 12 chocolates costing ₹40. Four friends decide to buy the same, but they have only ₹10 each and the shopkeeper only sells by the box. So the friends then decide to pool in ₹10 each and buy the box of 12 chocolates. Now based on their contribution, they each receive 3 chocolates or 3 units, if equated with Mutual Funds.
And how do you calculate the cost of one unit? Simply divide the total amount with the total number of chocolates: 40/12 = 3.33.
So if you were to multiply the number of units (3) with the cost per unit (3.33), you get the initial investment of ₹10.

This results in each friend being a unit holder in the box of chocolates that is collectively owned by all of them, with each person being a part owner of the box

What is NAV

Next, let us understand what is “Net Asset Value” or NAV. Just like an equity share has a traded price, a mutual fund unit has Net Asset Value per Unit. The NAV is the combined market value of the shares, bonds and securities held by a fund on any particular day (as reduced by permitted expenses and charges). NAV per Unit represents the market value of all the Units in a mutual fund scheme on a given day, net of all expenses and liabilities plus income accrued, divided by the outstanding number of Units in the scheme.

How Risk/Return trade-off by mutual fund category ?

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TYPE OF MUTUAL FUND SCHEMES

 OPEN-ENDED SCHEMES

 An open-end fund is a mutual fund scheme that is available for subscription and redemption on every business throughout the year, (akin to a savings bank account, wherein one may deposit and withdraw money every day). An open ended scheme is perpetual and does not have any maturity date.

 Close- Ended Schemes

 A passively managed fund, by contrast, simply follows a market index, i.e., in a passive fund , the fund manager remains inactive or passive inasmuch as, he/she does not use his/her judgement or discretion to decide as to which stocks to buy/sell/hold , but simply replicates / tracks the scheme’s benchmark index in exactly the same proportion. Examples of Index funds are an Index Fund and all Exchange Traded Funds. In a passive fund, the fund manager’s task is to simply replicate the scheme’s benchmark index i.e., generate the same returns as the index, and not to out-perform the scheme’s bench mark.

What is a Systematic Investment Plan (SIP)?

Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) is an investment route offered by Mutual Funds wherein one can invest a fixed amount in a Mutual Fund scheme at regular intervals– say once a month or once a quarter, instead of making a lump-sum investment. The installment amount could be as little as INR 500 a month and is similar to a recurring deposit. It’s convenient as you can give your bank standing instructions to debit the amount every month.

SIP has been gaining popularity among Indian MF investors, as it helps in investing in a disciplined manner without worrying about market volatility and timing the market. Systematic Investment Plans offered by Mutual Funds are easily the best way to enter the world of