Description

Crowdfunding is a practice in which households and companies can, through digital platforms, present projects and receive public funding. Due to the growth rate of its transactions, it is acquiring international relevance, as well as in Chile. In countries where this practice has presented greater depth there are financial policy responses imposing limits and providing protections to its users. The paper presents a first diagnosis of this activity in Chile and compiles public statistics to December 2016, quantifying around US$ 180 million traded, mainly focused on loans to companies (which represent 96% of the amount and 85% of the projects). Of these last transactions, we observe an average annual interest rate of 13.4% nominal, which must be adjusted to the fees of platforms. Although the activity is possibly presented as a more convenient financial alternative than the traditional one, and references show that large companies pay lower interest rates than small and medium-size enterprises, it is not possible to induce a vis-à-vis comparison with the available rates of capital markets entities, since the latter’s operations are limited according to the regulatory perimeter and crowdfunding conditions are not necessarily subject to comparable credit risk standards.