The Spanish translation of p2p lending is “Préstamos P2P”.  In 2008 Vicente de Luna (Economist and lawyer, expert on finance and taxation of companies) and Maria J. Bustamente (Lawyer specialized in collection and recovery) founded the company P2P Lending, S. L. The company operates the p2p lending site Lubbus.com. The site is online since January 1st, but not in operation yet. It is based on invitation only registration of users. For the  launch Lubbus awaits the go ahead of the Data Protection Authorities, which currently are reviewing the invitation system.

Users can be registered only through an invitation from a relative or friend, who benefits or suffers (in case of non-repayment) economically (0.10%) of any transaction the invited user makes. There is also a voting mechanism.

Lubbus.com charges a fee of 1% from lenders and 1.5% of the loan amount from borrowers. Lubbus offers the borrowers optional insurance which covers risks like unemployment (2.5% fee of the insured amount).

Lubbus has a secondary market (“mercado secundario“). The unusual feature about it is, that not only lenders can trade loans, but the secondary market also allows borrowers to repay early and let another borrower step in and continue to use the remaining loan. Lubbus charges a 1% fee on transactions. As a lender on an affected loan I would be wary of the exchange of the person I did lend to.

Credit scores used are supplied by Delta-R and Axesor.

Founder Vicente de Luna told P2P-Banking.com:

It is quite possible that in March [it] can function .. as the social platform. Community Projects will be effected through a foundation that works with local NGOs in various countries of the Third World. If all goes well, the business model is to develop in all Spanish speaking countries as possible (2010). Now it is possible for users [with an] domiciled bank account in Spain [to sign up]. We are the first Spanish company to invest in the p2p lending [market]. We hope to have over 3000 registered user in the first half of 2009.