Peer-to-peer finance website RateSetter.com today revealed that the number of consumer loans has passed £1m per week for the first time – up from £300k per week from the same period last year.

RateSetter has reached the landmark figure despite the fact that the majority of applications that they receive are not approved.

Director Alex Gowar believes the surge in growth can be attributed to a stringent credit checking process that only allows prime borrowers to access the market:

He said: “We have extremely strict lending criteria, so while we are facilitating over £1m in loans a week, demand for our products is much higher.

“In the last week alone we had over £10.5m applications but only approved a fraction. We are extremely proud of having a tiny default rate and understand that is why consumers are choosing us over traditional savings and loans products.”

Gowar added: “We are the only peer-to-peer platform that can say that every single lender has received every single penny of capital and interest. This gives savers great confidence in our message that lending is the new saving.”

Since launching in October 2010, RateSetter has matched over £45m between prime savers and borrowers looking for a better deal.