How New P2P Regulations Make the Industry Safer for Investors in Southeast Asia December 10, 2020 @ 1:50 pm By Milena Naitoh Digital lending platforms have made strong inroads in Southeast Asia over the past few years. In 2016 alone, peer-to-peer (P2P) business lending generated US$115.01 million—more than half of Southeast Asia’s total alternative financing market that year. This growth can be attributed to a combination of two factors: A high mobile penetration rate of 133%, with some people having two phones (or SIM cards) or more A massive funding gap, where micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) have unmet financing needs amounting to US$300 billion, despite the fact that small businesses account for 40% of Southeast Asia’s gross domestic product (GDP) and 70% of the region’s workforce, according to a Deloitte report