Peer to peer (P2P) lending is fast gaining popularity across the world. New institutions are starting up almost every month in different parts of the world. Here are some of the top regions that have witnessed the maximum P2P activities.

The concept of peer-to-peer lending is largely internet-based. Offering relatively lower borrowing rates and higher lending returns; this financing option is slowly mitigating the need for banks acting as middlemen between the borrowers and lenders. India too is not untouched by this wave as Faircent.com pioneers in P2P lending in India are introducing the country to a radically new investment option which is easy to relate with, and connect to.

UK: United Kingdom witnessed the first P2P lending activity with the emergence of Zopa in 2005. By 2013 UK had over 40 institutions and currently new companies are starting up almost every month. In 2013, the P2P sector lent £480 million, out of which around 60% went to retail customers. Besides Zopa, Funding Circle, Ratesetter, Marketinvoice are the top agencies.

United States: P2P lending started in USA with the launch of Prosper in 2006, followed by Lending Club soon after. These two still dominate the P2P field in USA with Lending Club doing business worth approximately $2 billion and Prosper around $350 million. Recent interest shown by WallStreet investors in this new field promises a lot of action in the future.

China: While many consider Lending Club to be the largest P2P agency, but that title belongs to China’s CreditEase. China has a huge shadow banking sector and unofficial estimates suggest the P2P market to be worth around $10 billion. CreditEase supposedly did business of around $3.2 billion with around 50,000 registered borrowers. Lufax is the third largest P2P platform in the world with around $2 billion of business in 2014. PPDAI, my089.com, RenRenDai are some of the other major players.

Eurozone: Countries in the Eurozone have their major P2P agencies, like Auxmoney in Germany, Pret d’Union in France, Smartika (formerly known as Zopa Italia) in Italy, or Boober in Netherlands. But the most interesting development in the Eurozone has been the emergence of cross border P2P lending. ISePankur from Estonia is the first agency to offer cross border lending across all 28 EU members and Switzerland. More and more agencies are following suite which makes P2P lending in the Eurozone to be an exciting market to look out for.

Australia: although limited in scale till now, the P2P field in Australia is one of the most promising ones for the future. IGrin, LendingHub, Fosik, Peermint are some of the indigenous agencies coming up in Australia. But more interestingly , it is the moves by global majors like Zopa or Lending Club opening subsidiaries in Australia that has really created the buzz.

India: Peer to peer lending also promises to usher in a new age of finance in India as well, with pioneers like Faircent.com starting operation in the country. It is expected that the global popularity of P2P lending will also be reflected in India and this alternative sector will attain greater heights in the near future.