In the UK, crowdsourced bank offers peer-to-peer financial services

CivilisedMoney is a new, crowdsourced effort in the UK that aims to offer peer-to-peer alternatives to a wide range of banking services.

Peer-to-peer banking is not an unfamiliar concept on our virtual pages, and we’ve seen it applied to lending, currency exchange and even currency itself. Now there’s CivilisedMoney, a new, crowdsourced effort in the UK that aims to offer peer-to-peer alternatives to a wide range of banking services. Launched in October, CivilisedMoney’s goal is to make it easy “for people to invest, donate, lend, borrow and transact money with each other directly at fair and transparent rates” without the involvement of banks. It began by crowdfunding GBP 100,000 for its own effort in just nine days, making CivilisedMoney one of the largest crowdfunded businesses in the UK, and the only crowdfunded business in financial services. It also launched with two features: an equity-based crowdfunding product allowing businesses to fund start-ups and expansion, and a rewards-based crowdfunding effort through which like-minded consumers can pool their money to back an idea, a person, a business or an organization. In either case, there’s a 5 percent fee for funds secured, but only if the fundraising target is reached. Ultimately, CivilisedMoney plans to offer a full range of peer-to-peer financial services products. “There is no fractional lending, no excessive bonus payments, no gambling with your money, no hidden and unfair fees or charges,” it explains. In the video below, founder Neil Crofts explains the premise in more detail: CivilisedMoney aims to expand beyond the UK and bring peer-to-peer finance to as many countries as possible via licensing and other arrangements. Financial services entrepreneurs around the globe: time to get involved? Spotted by: Cecilia Biemann