The peer-to-peer and equity crowd-funding markets totaled $6.4 billion at year-end 2013.
So concludes the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) in a February 2014 working paper "Crowed-funding: An Infant Industry Growing Fast." The report examines financial return crowd-funding and insights on the implications for users.
Crowd-funding refers to the use of small amounts of money, obtained from a large number of individuals or organizations, to fund a project, a business or personal loan, plus other needs through a Web-based platform. The research analyzes two areas of crowd-funding: peer-to-peer lending and equity crowd-funding, types of market-based finance collectively described as financial return crowd-funding of FR crowd-funding.
In the aggregate, the research shows, the U.S., U.K. and China constitute 96 percent of FR crowd-funding, the U.S. accounting for 51 percent of the market. China and the U.K. make up 28 percent and 17 percent, respectively.
Grouped together, the U.K., and the U.S. account for 68 percent or $4.3 billion of the FR crowd-funding market. Southeast Asia holds 28 percent market-share; South Korea and China nab most (95 percent) of the Asian market, the total for China pegged at $1.8 billion.
