One in four people in the UK would consider loaning money to UK SMEs by joining a peer-to-peer lending scheme in 2014 when the sector is predicted to be fully regulated, writes Hugh Cosans.

This is according to a new study by rebuildingsociety, a website that connects SME borrowers with lenders. The research also found that 17% would currently consider P2P lending over the next 12 months.

Rebuildingsociety.com predicts that the sector is set to boom with as much as £12bn to be lent through SME P2P schemes annually, roughly a tenth of total mainstream SME bank lending in 2012.

Commenting, Daniel Rajkumar, managing director at rebuildingsociety.com, said “Clearly not all individuals and small businesses who are considering using a P2P lender will end up doing so but as long as borrowing and saving conditions remain depressed, demand will rise.”

rebuildingsociety.com claims that individual lenders can typically earn between 8% and 15% interest through P2P platforms. This is significantly higher than the sub-inflation returns offered by many bank and building society accounts.