The Kiva API allows anyone to develop applications that use the data from Kiva loans. Below are screenshots from two Kiva loan apps.
Kiva loans by country of borrower – source Kivadata.org Continue reading
Author: wiseclerk
Prosper Reopens for California Lenders, Nationwide Borrowers
Prosper.com has restarted offering p2p lending to customers after an SEC imposed 6 months stop (quiet period).
Prosper chief executive Chris Larsen said the California Department of Corporations has authorized the company to resume raising money in California and then lending it out under a system that lets borrowers and lenders use bids to set the interest rates on loans. “I hope this leads to wider acceptance of peer-to-peer lending,” said Commissioner of Corporations Preston DuFauchard. He said the state’s experience with Prosper, prior to the SEC intervention, made it “comfortable” that its bidding system gives lenders the information they need to invest in loans wisely.
Prosper hopes to reopen for lenders from other states but it remains uncertain when Prosper will be allowed to do so.
Prosper raises the minimum credit score required to 640 (Grade C under the old rating). This applies only to new borrowers. Borrowers registered before the quiet period that have lower credit grades can still apply for second loans (example: loan listing of a HR borrower).
Besides “direct” p2p loan listings, Prosper offers “Open Market Listings“, which are described as following:
Open Market loans are existing loans that were underwritten by financial institutions that are credit experts in areas such as auto loans, small business loans or social impact loans. The loan seller describes the loan in an Open Market listing, and then sells and assigns the loan to Prosper.
Open Market loans may include existing consumer loans or retail installment sale contracts. They can be secured or unsecured loans, and may include small business loans, where the borrower is a business entity, not an individual.
Open Market listings describe the existing Open Market loan, owned by the loan seller, which is offered for sale on the Prosper marketplace. Each listing displays information to assist the lender in making an informed bidding decision. Lenders can review the sale price for the Open Market loan, the yield percentage that corresponds to the sales price, the remaining principal balance of the loan and the interest rate the borrower is obligated to pay on the loan.
In some instances on auto loans, you can even see the factory where the car was built. This is all part of the transparency Prosper brings to the marketplace so that you can make informed decisions on how to invest your money.
Prosper plans a secondary market which in future will allow lenders to trade notes.
(Sources: Prosper, San Francisco Chronicle)
Prosper to Resume Full Service Soon?
The site Prosper.com shows only a maintenance note today saying “… We expect the site to be down both Saturday (4/25/2009) and Sunday (4/26/2009).”.
Speculation: Maybe Prosper will end its quiet period and resume its full p2p lending service on Monday?
Kiva Loan Matching Plans
I am blogging this live while listening to the Kiva conference call. Kiva plans a loan matching program, where lenders and institutions can opt to automatically match loans made by other lenders.
Some statements/explanations from the conference call:
- Today 6 or 7 people out of 100 that visit the Kiva website actually make a loan (conversion rate)
- Lenders can select to match any loan, or select loans by criteria
- Lenders can opt to match immediately or only if they have periods of inactivity
- Minimum account balance allows to reserve some money in the account (only balance over this minimum is used for matching)
- Donations to the Kiva organisation are mandatory(!) when using the matching feature
Kiva says the new feature allows to automate the lending process and hopes that it inspires others to lend more.
The matching program will probably be launched in summer 2009.
On terms of automation there are similarities to the autobid feature MYC4 has.
See the following presentation for more details on the plans.
Matching Presentation Con Call April 2009
View more presentations from kivamicrofunds.
On other issues, there was the message that chances are good, that the Ebony Foundation (a MFI) repays outstanding loans (approx. 40,000 US$).
Prosper Plans Open Market Loans
Prosper.com, which is still in quiet period and not allowing new loans, made a new SEC filing yesterday. In this third amendment to the S-1 filing makes several amendments, most notably introducing securitization for initial offerings of loans.
Prosper plans “Open market loans”, which apparently are loans issued by traditional lenders which being securitized and resold to Prosper lenders. I am somewhat sceptical how many Prosper lenders will like the “open market loans” offer. To me this seems a far excursion from the peer to peer lending idea.
In the filing Prosper states that FolioFn will be the operator of the Prosper secondary market (named “Folio Investing Note Trader Platform”). FolioFn already operates the Note Trading Platform of Lending Club.
More changes in the new filing are in a review in this blog post at P2PLendingNews.
Maneo Introduces Guaranteed P2P Loan
Maneo introduces guaranteed p2p lending in Japan. On the new “G-Loan” the lender does not need to worry any more about defaults. Minimum investment is only 10,000 JPY (approx. 100 US$). The loans are guaranteed by Orix Credit Corporation which entered into a partnership with Maneo.
The downside is that on “G-Loans” the lender only receives 1.5% interest.
The borrower pays a fixed interest rate, which is set depending on his credit grade:
Borrowers now have the option of selecting a standard loan or a G-Loan. Selecting maneo’s standard loan gives borrowers the opportunity to lower their interest expense if sufficient lenders bid on their loans. In contrast, interest rates on G-Loans are fixed at 7.0%, 8.0%, 9.5%, 11.0% and 12.0% depending on the borrower’s credit rating. According to Tadatoshi Senoo, CEO of maneo, “We believe borrowers who select G-Loans will have an easier time attracting funds from lenders thanks to the guaranty by Orix Credit, and that the liquidity of maneo’s online social lending marketplace will increase significantly as a result, making borrowing at maneo even more attractive.”
In my view the choice whether it is a guaranteed loan or not should not be the borrower’s, but only for the lender to choose when bidding.
With an interest rate of only 1.5% the only merit of this model for lenders is that he can not lose money when bidding on a guaranteed loan.