Risks lurk in P2P lending sector, ratings agency warns

But while UK businesses are strong in such areas as sophisticated websites, technology-assisted lending decisions and consumer protection, Chinese companies also are leading in innovative new ways.

"Although China's P2P market still faces many crucial challenges, it has the greatest potential to take off and make a significant contribution to the real economy," says Sun Lei, CEO of 9fbank.com, a Chinese P2P company started in 2006, and one of the Chinese executives who visited the UK.

"China's P2P market is dominated by small and medium businesses that achieve tremendous growth with the funds from P2P lending," Sun says.

"The UK's market has developed for 10 years and today there are still only dozens of P2P lending firms, but in China there are already about 2,000 firms of various sizes and scales."

Sun says China is already pioneering new methods of innovative P2P lending, and an example is lending to farmers in a way that turns a family farm into a business, bringing in lenders to effectively become shareholders.

If a dairy farmer wants to increase production, he can borrow through a P2P platform to increase the number of cows on his farm, and the lenders will receive a share of the revenue made from the additional cow.

"This is different from traditional financing because a bank would not want to own a cow. At the same time it is a model the Western countries do not have, because P2P lending in Western countries focuses on the borrower himself, and not an asset in his business," he says.

The 15 P2P company leaders from China visited the UK in November to talk with UK company leaders as part of a trip was organized by Beijing-based consultancy Into Global Business Communications.

Companies visited included Zopa, famous as the world's first P2P firm. Others include Wellesley & Co and Funding Knight. They also attended a forum at the London Business School on the future of P2P lending.

Zopa was founded in 2005, but the practice really took off globally after the financial crisis when traditional financial institutions became more reluctant to lend.

The industry has substantial global growth potential, supported in part by low interest rates, a benign credit environment, evolving regulatory dynamics and robust institutional investor support, experts say.

Funding Circle, Lending Club, Prosper, RateSetter, and Zopa are among the largest global P2P lenders, which combined had nearly $3.5 billion in loans outstanding as of the end of 2013, up from just $1.2 billion at the end of 2012, according to Fitch Ratings.