CrowdBureau Corporation, a financial technology company and index provider, announced the launch of the CrowdBureau Peer-to-Peer Lending and Equity Crowdfunding Index (tickers: CBP2P and CBP2PTR). The Index is the first of its kind marketplace lending index that benchmarks the price and total return performance of the peer-to-peer lending and securities-based crowdfunding ecosystem and designed to enable the creation of tradable financial instruments. 

Amplify ETFs has licensed the index as the underlying methodology for an exchange traded fund that offers traders and investors exposure to this fast-growing industry. 

The index, which consists of U.S. listed securities, has been back casted to December 31, 2017 and is calculated in real time.  To be eligible for inclusion in the index, companies must operate in one of the following four segments that comprise the peer-to-peer lending and equity crowdfunding ecosystem as defined by CrowdBureau:

(1) Peer-to-peer lending and equity crowdfunding platforms; 
(2) Financial institutions with a dedicated peer-to-peer lending platform;
(3) Social network(ing) platforms that offer or plan to offer peer-to-peer lending or equity crowdfunding services; and,
(4) Providers of technology and software solutions to the peer-to-peer lending and equity crowdfunding industry.

A total of 36 companies are tracked in the index as of December 31, 2018.  

Key facts

• The index uses a modified market capitalization weighted methodology that combines two capitalization weighted segments subject to the asset diversification requirements, and two equal weighted segments to establish an index in which a single constituent and/or the sum of the weights of the securities representing a defined group are constrained to a maximum weight; 
• Reconstituted and rebalanced quarterly; 
• Calculated in real time using proprietary CrowdBureau methodology; 
• Prices in U.S. dollars

"The industry is maturing as more platforms are adopting and complying with the regulations of their respective countries. As of February 8, 2019, the index total return performance is up 21.03 percent year-to-date after rebounding strongly following a low reached during the market pullback on December 21, 2018. The index is positioned to bring increased transparency, liquidity and distribution to this maturing industry," said Kim Wales, the chief executive officer of CrowdBureau. Ms. Wales is an industry pioneer and subject matter expert on securities-based crowdfunding whose work contributed to the final rules of the U.S. JOBS Act, 2012 and other international regulatory frameworks on securities-based crowdfunding, equity and debt.