auxmoney

Discussion Paper on P2P Lending Published by Deutsche Bundesbank

wiseclerk 3 Comments

The central bank of Germany, Deutsche Bundesbank, has published a discussion paper on the role of p2p lending in the consumer credit market written by Calebe de Roure, Loriana Pelizzon and Paolo Tasca. The study analyses data of German p2p lending marketplace Auxmoney.

Research Question

In recent years, we have begun to observe the growth of the internet economy, which has progressively led to “crowd-based” platforms and the direct matching of lenders and borrowers. Via peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms the decision process of loan origination is given into the hands of private lenders and borrowers. This paper investigates how the P2P lending market fits into the credit market and specifically aims to answer the following questions: Why do retail consumers look for P2P financial intermediation? Are the interest rates charged by P2P lenders in Germany higher than those of banks? Are P2P loans more risky than bank loans? Are internet-based peer-to-peer loans substitutes for or complementary to bank loans?

Contribution and Results

The paper shows that loans channelled via P2P platforms involve higher interest rates than loans channelled via the traditional banking sector. They are also riskier than those of banks. However, when adjusted for risk, the interest rates are comparable. Moreover, analysis of the different segments of the bank credit market and P2P lending shows that, after having controlled for interest rate and risk differences, the bank lending volumes are negatively correlated with the P2P lending volumes. Our finding suggests that high-risk borrowers substitute bank loans for P2P loans since banks are unwilling or unable to supply this slice of the market. Continue reading →

Auxmoney Raises Series D from Seven Ventures

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Auxmoney Logo 2016Auxmoney, one of the oldest German p2p lending marketplaces, has completed a Series D round with Seven Ventures as lead investor. The specifics were not disclosed, only that Seven Ventures along with Index Ventures, Union Square Ventures und Foundation Capital invested a double digit million Euro amount. Seven Ventures is the investment arm of ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE, which operates large TV channels in Germany.

Raffael Johnen, co-founder and CEO of Auxmoney stated: „The partnership with ProSiebenSat1 is an important milestone on our path to change the public awareness for p2p lending in Germany. We will make a big step towards our goal to enable access to loans for more people. The raised capital and the better access to TV advertising will help us to make p2p lending part of everyday life of millions of people.” (original quote in German; own translation)

Auxmoney trippled loan volume in 2015 compared to 2014.  As of January 31st, 2016, according to numbers on file with P2P-Banking.com, the company had originated 441 million EUR in loans since launch, with a monthly loan origination volume of 10.6M for the last month on file (January 2016).

Auxmoney management
Auxmoney management

German P2P Lending Service Auxmoney Raises 16M US$ Series B

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German p2p lending service Auxmoney completed a 16M US$ series B round, financed by Foundation Capital, joined by Partech Ventures and Scott Bommer, alongside existing backers Index Ventures and Union Square Venture. Index Ventures and Union Squre Ventures already invested in the Series A in the end of 2012.

Auxmoney was founded in 2007, and has originated 94.4 million EUR in p2p loans since.

The proceeds will be used for auxmoney’s ambitious expansion plans, by further enhancing the Düsseldorf-based lending and investment platform and expanding the company’s 60-strong team.

auxmoney CEO and co-founder Raffael Johnen said the investment marked a tipping-point for peer-to-peer lending in Germany, with the market set to go mainstream. “We are about to witness a major shift in consumer behaviour towards peer-to-peer loans. As clear market leader in Germany, auxmoney is right at the forefront of this development,” he said. “With our new partners on board, we are ready to turn crowdlending into an integral and mainstream element of Germany’s consumer finance landscape.”

Auxmoney Now Sets Interest Rates Based on Own Score Classes

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Auxmoney introduced a major change to the way interest rates are set. Instead of letting borrowers select the interest rate they are willing to pay, p2p lending service Auxmoney sets interest rates based on self-computed credit scores starting today. Auxmoney says it uses over 300 factors to grade borrowers either AAA, AA, A, B, C, D, E or X. The model now resembles the models Lending Club and Prosper use to set interest rates. In an earlier article I had compared different models p2p lending services use to set interest rates.

Near-term I expect borrower demand to rise due to this change since for most borrowers interest rates will be lower. However lower interest rates will lessen attractiveness for lenders and probably reduce funding percentage (in the weeks before this change approx. 30 to 40% of loan request got funded).

(via P2P-Kredite.com)

Auxmoney Changes Display Rules for Credit Scores

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P2P lending service Auxmoney changed its TOS today. Auxmoney will make display of pulled credit scores mandatory (there are 3 score types obtained from different bureaus). In the past the display of credit scores was optional and borrowers could decide, if they want them in their listing. In fact borrowers could decide to remove credit scores from their loan listing should they consider a low score to hurt funding chances.

In practise only loan applications with displayed scores had realistic funding chances in the past – over 90% of the funded loans had at least one credit score information (see chart). But this is still a positive step, offering more transparency for lenders and allowing easier comparision of the over 2,000 open loan listings.