So far there are no p2p lending services active in Spain. Manuel Ángel-Méndezwrote a comprehensive article on the situation in Spain for El País. Some of the key facts from this article:
Giles Andrews, of Zopa, confirms: "We have had conversation with several companies in Spain"
Pol Navarro, director of innovation at Banc Sabadell,thinks that p2p lending will not be a short term threat to banks. "it is to early to tell if p2p lending will be a successul business model in Spain"
Banking organisations expect, that p2p lending will profit from the introduction of a personal identification number (digital DNI) which will be introduced within the next 18 months. Fernando Alfaro of Bankinter sees to chances for p2p lending services: low costs of entrance (IT costs) and millions of immigants in need of loans, that do not have a credit history
Spanish startup Partizipa.com does p2c lending instead of p2p lending. Individual investors can lend money together to fund a company. Currently a solar power plant in Andalucia is listed for funding. The amount to be raised is 285,000 Euro. Minimum individual investment is 5,000 Euro. The project advertises 13.85% ROI.
Earlier investors bought land in Bulgaria through Partizipa.
I did a short interview with Agustín Cárdenas, one of the founders of Partizipa:
P2P-Banking.com: Can you please describe Partizipa?
Agustín Cárdenas: Currently, we are offering P2C (person to company) lending, making it possible to invest small sums of money in big businesses. At the moment we are still developing the frame-work for P2P lending, and we hope we will be able to offer it sometime later this year. As of now, we cannot provide any further details. Our main aim is to build a community in which any given member presents a new idea for a business to the others for it to be enriched, completed and financed. If the business is successful, then every investor will share the profits according to his/her investment.
P2P-Banking.com: Who can invest? Only residents of Spain, or anybody?
Agustín Cárdenas: The only prerequisite to become a member of the community is to have a bank account in Spain under his/her name.
P2P-Banking.com: Does Partizipa administer and transfer the funds, or does it just make contact between investor and business opportunity and both handle the contract and the payment themselves?
Agustín Cárdenas: If the business is created by us, then it is us who manage the entire process up until the moment of completion and the sharing of profits. In any other case, even though we supervise all the process, we only put in contact the business originator and the investors.
P2P-Banking.com: When did you start the company?
Agustín Cárdenas: We are an extraordinarily young company. We have been operating only since September 2007. So far, our registered users have financed projects valued at 2.3 million Euro.
Springwise reports that Boober.nl has plans to expand its p2p lending service into the German and Belgian markets. In job ads Boober recently searched country directors for Germany, France and Spain and said it is already working on roll out in Belgium.
