What do you do when your bank’s gone away? Get by with a little help from your friends, naturally. Peer-to-peer lending – which lets friends and complete strangers lend small amounts of money to each other over the internet – has enjoyed a surge of interest in recent months as banks have cut back on lending, often even to creditworthy customers.

The idea is simple: starving musicians, entrepreneurs or other people in need of a small loan (usually less than $25,000) can log on to a P2P lending site to tell their story. Fellow web surfers with money to spare parcel out funds to worthy applicants. The P2P website, which collects fees from both parties, works with borrowers to ensure repayment at a pre-agreed interest rate. In theory, borrowers benefit by gaining access to new sources of credit. Lenders run the risk of default but are rewarded with decent returns – about 10 per cent, according to Zopa.com, a UK-based service.