10 Sep 2015

Peer-to-peer lender to expand to Australia

12:03 pm on 10 September 2015

New Zealand's first peer-to-peer lender will expand into Australia in November, as part of a plan to drive scale and profitability.

Harmoney.co.nz has facilitated $100 million in personal loans in its first year in business and hopes the expansion will help it more than double its turnover over the next year.

The online peer-to-peer consumer loans platform makes money by charging borrowers a one-time booking fee, while investors pay a service fee of 1.25 percent on the principal and interest payments they collect.

Harmoney chief executive Neil Roberts said the company needed to be at least twice its size to begin turning a profit.

The company's investors include Trade Me and niche bank Heartland New Zealand.

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