On 3 August, Metro Bank announced that it plans to acquire RateSetter, one of Britain’s biggest peer-to-peer lenders, for an initial sum of £2.5m. It may come to be known as the final nail in the coffin of peer-to-peer lending.

RateSetter, which a few years ago had been backed by Neil Woodford at a valuation of more than £200m, was the most peer-to-peer of all peer-to-peer lenders. For years, the business trumpeted the fact that it used exclusively retail cash, invested through its matchmaking platform, to fund loans. But no more.