This also includes a record month of lending at Zopa as the platform lent £27m in October alone.

In reaching this milestone, Zopa has now lent a total of £657m with 38% (£250m) of this total being lent in the last 12 months.

Giles Andrews, Zopa’s CEO and co-founder said, “We are delighted to have lent a quarter of a billion pounds in 12 months. To put that into perspective Zopa has lent more in the last year than we had lent in seven years of lending from 2005-2012. The growth we’re experiencing is testament to our multi-award winning customer service and providing outstanding value to consumers as 97% of our customers would recommend us. The industry growth we’re seeing really goes to show that P2P lending is fast becoming a mainstream activity. Our mission is to always provide great value to our customers by making money simple and fair.”

With the inclusion of peer-to-peer lending in ISAs on the horizon, Zopa expects peer-to-peer lending to enter the mainstream in Q2 of 2015 as consumers look for better value from alternative providers by cutting out the banks.