Lendingclub.com now enables members to be a borrower AND a lender. Borrowers can have multiple loans, credit policy guidelines permitting. Lendingclub also added a Q&A feature and improved statistics. The new referral program enables this offer:
$25 bonus for you, when you sign up as a lender here (bonus credited after you funded your account)
$25 bonus for you, when you sign up as a borrower here (bonus credited after loan application)
Launched in February 2006 American peer to peer lending service Prosper.com has surpassed the threshold of 100 million US$ in loans funded. Prosper is the largest peer to peer lending service. Growth peaked during 2nd quarter of 2007, where funded loan volume per month reached approx 8 million US$.
I noticed prominently displayed Microplace ads on Technorati.com today. Not sure if it is really keyword-targeted or rather context targeted. When I did searches on Technorati on Globefunder or Kiva I was shown Microplace ads.
Technorati is an interesting choice for the campaign (if it runs only there – I did not check). Technorati is mainly used by bloggers and journalists. The ads would therefore target not the individual investor but the multiplier who might write about Microplace.
I noted that the ad display is NOT using geotargeting meaning it is not only shown to US residents but to viewer worldwide (only US residents can use Microplace at the moment).
(Sample screenshot after search for globefunder)
(Another sample ad, original is larger and flash animated)
Prosper.com recently allowed borrowers to take out a second loan while the first is still active.
Now Prosper changed the Borrower's Agreement and included the following rule: "You may not obtain a Loan from the Prosper marketplace to pay off an existing Prosper Loan."
The discussion on this change is lively, with many lenders wondering about the reason behind this and how Prosper will enforce this rule. Prosper allows prepayments with no penalty. How will Prosper know where the money for the repayment came from?
A possibility is that Prosper added this clause to benefit from servicing fees longer.
Globefunder is (still) announcing to launch its peer-to-peer lending service soon.
To keep you occupied reading while waiting, P2P-banking.com has gathered some tidbits of information on Globefunder (US launch):
A recent Prosper S1 SEC filing is a step towards the planned secondary market as this Prosper press release confirms. The secondary market will allow Prosper lenders to trade loans they have invested in. Excerpt from the press release:
…Following effectiveness of the registration statement, Prosper intends to establish and maintain a secondary trading market online auction platform, or Resale Platform, pursuant to which lenders may seek to transfer borrower notes to other Prosper registered lenders. …
Excerpt from the SEC filing:
If Prosper is able to establish the Resale Platform, Prosper intends to charge all selling Lenders a nonrefundable resale listing fee of $0.25 per Note being listed for auction resale, or $0.50 per Note being listed for resale with an automatic sale feature. Listing fees will be charged and collected at the time the listing is posted on the Resale Platform by deducting the resale listing fee from the selling Lender’s funding account. Prosper also intends to charge the selling Lender a resale transaction fee equal to 1.0% of the resale price, subject to a minimum fee of $0.50, which will be deducted from the resale proceeds.
Further discussion here.