Exchange Corporation K.K. (www.exchange.co.jp) “ExCo†announced the launch of its social lending service. The Aqush platform empowers both individuals with extra money and credit-worthy borrowers. By connecting these two groups, credit-worthy people can borrow money more easily and at a better rate than they would get from a lending company, and retail investors can invest in loans that provide a higher return on investment than available from time deposits or money market accounts.
“Social lending helps both lenders and borrowers get better rates,” said Russell Cummer, Co-founder and President of ExCo. “Japanese retail investors are looking to find investment assets with attractive yields while credit-worthy borrowers are not being well-served by traditional lending institutions. Aqush helps solve these problems for both groups and benefits both.â€
Mechanism
Using Aqush, individuals can apply a 3-year unsecured personal loan of 100,000 to 3,000,000 JPY. Qualified borrowers are funded by one or more pools of individual investors. Aqush handles user identity and employment verification, credit checking, credit reporting, funds transfers and collections.
Credit Grades
Aqush has developed the Aqush Credit Grades using FICO risk scoring technology.
Revenue
AQUSH generates revenue by collecting a one-time processing fee of 3% of the loan amount plus 420from borrowers and a processing fee of 0.125% of the outstanding principle from each monthly repayment to investors.
Read more details in the full-length press release.