As reported earlier Dutch site Boober.nl failed. Richard van den Toorn, speaking for the association of lenders PIVN, estimates that about 1,200 lenders are affected. While part of the total loan volume of 1.65 million Euro had been repayed over the loan term before the failure, overall borrower’s willingness to pay dwindled after the failure. Still PIVN hopes to recover 50-80% of the outstanding amounts on behalf of the lenders.
(Source: ANP via Nu.nl)
Giles Andrews on building Zopa, it’s brand and differentiating from banks.
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.
(Source: Comunitae newsletter)
IOU Central, headquartered in Kennesaw, Georgia, Wednesday submitted an SEC S-1 Registration filing in order to launch in the US. IOU Central did launch a p2p lending service in Canada in Feb. 2008 for a brief period of time before it was closed due to regulation constraints.
Barry Coleman, VP Marketing at IOU Central, told P2P-Banking.com earlier this year:
… we are getting ready to release an online marketplace that will revolutionize peer-to-peer lending. Our platform will give borrowers the benefit of a true marketplace that allows for better interest rates. The platform will also give lenders freedom in lending with our real-time bidding system. We have taken a lot of the good from the original IOU Central platform and added features that make it much better for both borrowers and lenders.
The registration filing shows the minimum requirements IOU Central will apply to borrowers (Equifax Vantage score of at least 670 and others) and the validation process (most borrower income, employment and occupation information will be self-reported and not verified). The interest rate is set by the IOU Central loan marketplace based on several borrower related criteria. There will be auction bidding by lenders (like at Prosper) and an auto-fund option. Furthermore lenders can set auto-bidding parameters.
IOU Central will charge lenders a servicing fee of 1% of the remaining principal balance. Borrowers pay a 2% loan origination fee.
Terms of the loans will be 1, 2 or 3 years.
Less than 2 weeks after reopening the p2p lending platform Prosper.com has closed down again, not accepting new lenders and borrowers.
The website currently displays the following message:
Prosper is Currently in a Quiet Period
We have been overwhelmed by the outcry from potential investors around the country who want to participate in peer-to-peer lending. Thank you for your support and your letters to us.
After much consideration we have decided to voluntarily shut down our operation in order to complete our SEC approval for a nationwide peer-to-peer lending platform. As a result, due to regulatory concerns, and in the interest of working toward getting our registration statement effective as soon as possible, we are discontinuing our California intrastate offering at this time.
If you’re an existing lender, your current lender agreements will be unaffected; your existing loans will continue to be serviced; you’ll be able to track and monitor your loans; and you’ll be able to withdraw funds from your Prosper account.
If you are a borrower with an existing loan, you will continue with your current borrower agreement and be unaffected by the registration process.
We want to assure you that Prosper is looking forward to being able to offer a transparent, durable and participatory lending institution very soon.
As a result of this decision, we will not be accepting new lender or borrower registrations or loans, or new commitments from existing lenders effective immediately. Until this process is complete, we are required to be in a quiet period and will be unable to respond to press, blogger or other inquiries related to our SEC registration process, even though we would like to.
We sincerely apologize to the Prosper community members for this inconvenience or disappointment our decision may have caused. We want to thank those of you who demonstrated your support through your active participation whether by investing with us again or referring friends to our site.
Thank you in advance for your understanding, support and patience once more. We look forward to serving the needs of the community in the hopefully not too distant future.
What a mess.
Zopa has run a member competition, asking members to explain how Zopa works for a borrower or a lender.
I watched several of the created videos. My favourite is the video below by Glenmation.