Finance & economics | Peer-to-peer lending

Banking without banks

By offering both borrowers and lenders a better deal, websites that put the two together are challenging retail banks

SAVERS have never had a worse deal but for most borrowers, credit is scarce and costly. That seeming paradox attracts new businesses free of the bad balance sheets, high costs and dreadful reputations which burden most conventional banks.

This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Banking without banks”

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From the March 1st 2014 edition

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