The International P2P Market System. American and Italian Context Compared

For some time, many economies and industries, particularly in the US, Europe and emerging markets, have been witnessing the emergence of alternative financing channels and instruments, outside the traditional financial system of the regulated banking and capital markets. In recent years, P2P lending has seen a truly exponential growth worldwide thanks to the rise of online platforms. In Italy, the market is still in its infancy, which is why in April 2016 P2P Lending Italia was created: a body that serves to collect data on Italian platforms to monitor its growth and promote the culture of Peer-to-Peer Lending. With a view to analysing the evolutionary aspects of online platforms and the legal trends that this phenomenon has at an international level, this analysis focuses on the American and Italian markets. This area of investigation was based both on a historical approach with respect to the birth of P2P lending initiatives and on operational and regulatory characteristics.