As the end of 2008 approaches here is a look back on the highlights of peer to peer lending news in 2008:
- February: Gartner predicts that by 2010 social lending captures 10% market share; p2p lending in Poland takes off; IOUcentral launches in Canada – only to be suspended by regulator a week later
- April: Lendingclub enters quiet period for SEC registration; Cashare launches p2p lending service in Switzerland; Prosper goes national with 36 percent max. interest rate – partnering with WebBank; Zopa UK reshapes markets – concentrates on 36 and 60 months loan terms
- May: MyC4 has new interface and shifts currency risks to lenders
- August: Zopa UK launches young market; Maneo launches p2p lending services in Japan
- September: Kiva repayments are now immediately available for reinvestment; Zopa grows in Italy – has secondary market
- October: Loanio launches in the US; Friendsclear launches in France; Smava raises more venture capital; Zopa US closes; Veecus launces p2p microfinance; Lending club comes out of quiet period and introduces secondary market note trading platform; Prosper enters quiet period for SEC registration; Kiva wins grant; more than 685M US$ p2p lending volume; two funds will invest more than 2M Euro in Africa through MyC4
- November: 50 million US$ Kiva loans reached; Comunitae gets funding; SEC orders Prosper to cease and desist; Loanio suspends operations
- December: Class action lawsuit and other legal troubles challenge Prosper
wiseclerk:
Interesting summary. Thanks for your dedication to covering the P2P lending space worldwide. Keep it up!
Happy Holidays to you and your family, and look forward to an exciting 2009!
Cheers
Rob Garcia, Lending Club
ZimpleMoney.com has a web product that enables people or organizations to make and manage direct p-2-p loans. ZimpleMoney is focused on ‘naturally” occurring networks like family, friends, churches, schools, organizations, non-profits, charities and foundations. ZimpleMoney sends bills, receives payments, post to loan ledgers, sends late notices, sends alerts as to the status of billing and collection process and provides tax records. We also provide a digital document management tool to upload files. Take a look at our site at http://www.ZimpleMoney.com Zimpley, Steve Rabago, ZEO ZimpleMoney