Are you passionate about p2p lending or p2p microfinance? Would you like to contribute reports, news and experiences related to this topic from your country? Are you willing to research the details and look beyond the marketing messages of the p2p lending companies?
Become a guest author at the P2P-Banking blog. Your articles will be posted under your name. You will frequently share news, information and latest developments on p2p lending and how the established banking players in your country react on or embrace these trends.
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Spanish regional bank Caja Navarra is the first bank to offer it’s own customers a p2p lending service. Caja Navarra announced the p2p lending microsite. Caja Navarra markets this new peer to peer lending service as one investment option in a letter to its 400,000 customers.
The service allows any customer to place a loan request which can then be fulfilled by a relative, a friend, an acquaintance or a stranger. Caja Navarra says the borrower can benefit by receiving a lower interest rate than in a traditional bank loan. There are currently 3 loan requests listed (if I understand the site right). Continue reading →
Spanish p2p lending service Comunitae.com has now been one months in beta phase.
So far 900 borrrowers have submitted loan applications and 260 lenders have communicated their intention to provide funding for the total of 110,000 EUR (approx. 80,000 US$). One factor named for the success of the beta phase is the high media attention. In recent weeks Comunitae was covered on CNN, Radio Nacional de España, IntereconomÃa, Onda Madrid Radio Canal Nou, 7RM, Media Capital, Europa Press, El Pais, El Mundo, Expansión, Liberty Digital, El Economista, CincodÃas ABC, My Portfolio Investment, Capital, Politics economic reason, which, AVUI, Invertia, Soitu as well as over 50 blogs.
Users can be registered only through an invitation from a relative or friend, who benefits or suffers (in case of non-repayment) economically (0.10%) of any transaction the invited user makes. There is also a voting mechanism.
Lubbus.com charges a fee of 1% from lenders and 1.5% of the loan amount from borrowers. Lubbus offers the borrowers optional insurance which covers risks like unemployment (2.5% fee of the insured amount).
Lubbus has a secondary market (“mercado secundario“). The unusual feature about it is, that not only lenders can trade loans, but the secondary market also allows borrowers to repay early and let another borrower step in and continue to use the remaining loan. Lubbus charges a 1% fee on transactions. As a lender on an affected loan I would be wary of the exchange of the person I did lend to.
Credit scores used are supplied by Delta-R and Axesor.
Founder Vicente de Luna told P2P-Banking.com:
It is quite possible that in March [it] can function .. as the social platform. Community Projects will be effected through a foundation that works with local NGOs in various countries of the Third World. If all goes well, the business model is to develop in all Spanish speaking countries as possible (2010). Now it is possible for users [with an] domiciled bank account in Spain [to sign up]. We are the first Spanish company to invest in the p2p lending [market]. We hope to have over 3000 registered user in the first half of 2009.
Comunitae gets 2 million Euro funding from Entrinnova to establish itself as a p2p lending service in Spain.
Comunitae will allow loans between 3,000 and 15,000 Euro for loan terms of 1 to 3 years. The amount that lenders can lend will be up to 50,000 Euro (minimum 50 Euro). Only residents of Spain will be able to use the platform.
