P2P Lending Year-End Review 2010

As the end of 2010 approaches here is a selection of main peer-to-peer-lending news and developments covered by P2P-Banking.com:

(Photo by paul (dex))

Year-End Review of Peer to Peer Lending in 2009

As the end of 2009 approaches here is a selection of main news and developments covered by P2P-Banking.com:

January: Smava expands into Poland (interview); Pertuity Direct launched; German Smava raises fees; total global p2p lending loan volume is about 740 million US$
February: Sobralaen launches in Estonia (later renamed Isepankur)
March: Lending Club receives 12M US$ in VC funding and introduces self-directed IRA; Dutch p2p lending service Boober fails
April: Aqush launches friends and family loans in Japan; Prosper very briefly reopens
May: Vittana launch; IOU Central files SEC registration to open in the US; United Prosperity launches with a loan guarantee microfinance model
June: Spanish bank Caja Navarra experiments with own p2p lending platform; my article ‘For Debate: A Flaw in Current P2P Lending Models?‘ gets quite some email feedback; Kiva launches with loans to US businesses; Loanio SEC filing; Zopa prospers in the UK; P2P Lending Services in Germany get a boost by media coverage; Kiva enacts currency risk coverage changes
July: Prosper reopens with SEC approval and starts secondary market
August: Blogs discus whether p2p lending is or will become disruptive; Pertuity Direct closes after only 7 month of operations
September: Smava Poland interview; the article ‘P2P Lending Technology – Make or Buy‘ is one of the most-read and the most commented article in 2009
October: Moneyauction booms in Korea
November: Kiva surpasses 100 million US$ in loans; Prosper and MYC4 have problems with non-payments/defaults; Virgin Money exits US p2p lending market
MYC4 reduces staff

Off to new shores (Photo credit: Nattu)

As the end of 2008 approaches here is a look back on the highlights of peer to peer lending news in 2008:

2007 was an exciting and eventful year in the development of peer to peer lending. Looking back these were the highlights:

February: Boober.nl launches the first p2p lending service in the Netherlands.
Prosper.com raises required borrower credit score to 520 and introduces other major changes
March: Smava.de launches German p2p lending service
April: Fairrates.dk offers person to person lending in Denmark
May: Lendingclub.com launch in the US, initially limited to Facebook members
June: Prosper raises another 20M US$ VC. PPdai p2p lending launch in China
July: Globefunder raises 1.5M US$ VC
August: Boober is temporarily forced to stop lending by financial authorities. MyC4, which allows lenders to fund microloans to African entrepreneurs, grows steadily while still in private beta
September: Kiva sold out after extensive media coverage.
October: Microplace launches with microlending. Microplace is an Ebay company. Australia gets peer to peer lending through iGrin. Zopa UK launches 'Zopa Listings'. Prosper portfolio plans introduced. A Prosper SEC filing is the first step towards a secondary market for Prosper loans
November: Boober and Zopa launch in Italy. Prosper reaches 100 million US$ loan volume.
December: Zopa US launch. Lendingclub goes nationwide. Canadian Communitylend receives 2.5M VC. In Sweden Loanland is the first p2p lending service.

I will write another article on which trends to expect in p2p lending in 2008.