Hola from Spain

Jesus Martin Calvo

Comunitae is currently showing how the P2P lending model works to the Spanish community. In July, the first 10 loans were granted, among them very different loan purposes such as office refurbishment or wedding expenses. There have been also many cancelled loans mainly due to insufficient lenders or discrepancies in information. The total volume lent in July was 58,500 EUR (approx. 84,000 US$) at an average rate of 10.36%. It seems Comunitae is starting to work with cautious steps.

Currently there are 36 accepted auctions asking for a loan, only one of them is completed, in which there are 61 bids for a 4,000 EUR loan at a 13% maximum rate. . In July there has been 50 working auctions for loans as average, 645 people willing to lend money and 780 firm petitions for a loan, 5,033 users have been registered so far. The cautious approach Comunitae is taking, led to rejection of 70% of the borrowers asking for a loan, looking for a default rate of 1%.

Although Comunitae recommends interest rates by ranking borrowers from A to C and maturity with clear rules, lenders decide within a range established by the borrower which is normally higher than recommended by the company. That could show a scarcity of lenders. It seems that this is not a concern to the company – they ask for demanding and selective lenders. Trust is the root of the model and they also developed a groups section where everyone can create or join a group. However one of the groups is sending messages to almost all borrowers to join which could be a spam issue to be dealed by Comunitae or a bad practice to be felt by users and the group to be generally rejected. It seems the group creator wants to advertise his own blog.

Comunitae’s Community Manager Millán Berzosa is working hard  to show how the model works with a high response from online media as well as Spanish traditional media with interviews, reports or news on a even weekly basis. Coverage is reported on the corporate blog.

Jesús Martin Calvo writes as a guest author for P2P-Banking.com covering p2p lending developments in Spain. He just finished his studies in Law and Business.

Benefits of Investing in P2P Lending via Lending Club

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Lending Club lenders have invested more than 45 million US$ in loans to fellow borrowers. Not yet a Lending Club investor?

You might off by watching this presentation, which was recently webcasted by Lending Club to lenders. The 30 minute presentation lists benefits and explains the basics on how the website works.

Since it is marketing material it does show a very rosy picture on the numbers, but you can crunch all figures for yourself on Lending Club’s statistic page (e.g. change observation to loans issued from June 2007 to June 2008).

If you are ready to start investing at Lendingclub. com you can sign up here.

First Prosper.com Note up for Trade on Trading Platform

wiseclerk

Prosper.com picked up speed again fast after the relaunch. As of today there are already more than 500 loan listings open for bidding. 5 loans already originated, despite the short timespan since re-opening.

Today I saw the first note for resale on the note trading platform. It is sold in auction mode where lenders can bid (sealed bids) during a seven days auction. Currently there are four bids. Would the auction end right now, then the buyer would purchase the note at a steep discount (40.4 Cents on the dollar). But I am sure bid prices will rise fast when more lenders discover that there is now activity on Prosper’s secondary market.

Guest Authors Wanted at P2P-Banking.com

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Are you passionate about p2p lending or p2p microfinance? Would you like to contribute reports, news and experiences related to this topic from your country?
Are you willing to research the details and look beyond the marketing messages of the p2p lending companies?

Become a guest author at the P2P-Banking blog. Your articles will be posted under your name. You will frequently share news, information and latest developments on p2p lending and how the established banking players in your country react on or embrace these trends.

P2P-Banking.com is especially seeking guest authors from Italy, Spain, Poland and Japan, which are fast growing p2p lending markets. But we do welcome writers sharing their knowledge and experience from other countries.

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