Year-on-year growth in lending amongst European peer-to-peer (P2P) lenders has broken through the 100 per cent mark, new figures contained in the Liberum AltFi Volume Index (Continental Europe) reveal.

Alternative finance news source AltFi has also used historic data to compute the probable magnitude of origination volume in 2016. European consumer platforms are expected to grow their origination volumes from the existing 2015 total of €674m (£512m) to €1380m (£1048m) in 2016, indicating thriving demand from both consumers and businesses for their offerings.

Liberum AltFi expects an astounding growth rate for European P2P lending of 104 per cent by the close of 2016. Moreover, 41 per cent of the P2P lenders supplying data for the index are expected to see year-on-year growth of more than 200 per cent.

Meanwhile, equivalent data for the UK reveals that P2P loan volumes currently stand at £5.5bn, with just under £100m originated so far this year. Based on data for the last three months, SME and consumer financing have market shares of 44 per cent and 43 per cent respectively.

While BBA data shows banks accounting for £7bn of new SME lending each quarter, AltFi Liberum data shows that P2P lenders financed £345.4m in the last quarter of 2015. Lending from UK P2P platforms to SMEs actually rose every quarter of the year.

UK P2P lenders are expected to originate £4.3bn in 2016, a stunning 53 per cent year-on-year growth rate. Continental European platforms are projected to perform even better than the UK, with origination volumes soaring by 104 per cent to hit €1.38bn (£1.05m) by the end of the year.