Yesterday the headline of Dutch De Financiele Telegraph read "ABN AMRO brings together borrowers and lenders". ABN Amro is a large bank in the Netherlands. The article mentioned Boober and that ABN Amro is offering a different service.
So what is ABN Amro offering? P2P lending?
Actually the service in question can be found on this page and it is a free download document that lenders and borrowers can use to agree on a loan contract between them. Other the supplying the download ABN Amro is not involved in any resulting loans. In fact the site states (in Dutch):
… The general information on this page has not been meant as a recommendation. ABN Amro will not take liability …
I guess that can be filed under marketing using the 'peer-to-peer loan' buzz or at best under customer service.
It may also be seen as a malicious way for abn to react against Boobe.nl ( Boober claiming on his website that by 2010, 10% of the market share will be lost by banks ) … bank highlight that P2P lending does not require a P2P plattform, customer tries, gets into trouble, some press coverage about the troubles encountered by the concerned customer, to end up with a general /statement that lending is a matter of professionnals ( ie banks )
yeah I know… banks are not (that) malicious… 😉
cheers
Z