Archive for the ‘ Featured ’ Category

Today Prosper released December 2009 statistics and second half 2009 marketplace performance metrics. Continue reading Prosper Releases Peer-to-Peer Lending Market Survey

by Colin Henderson, Chief Technology Officer, CommunityLend

The original vision for peer-to-peer lending was formed at a time when internet models were evolving from web sites to social interactions. The notion of wisdom of crowds and the ability of a larger group to prepare better decisions than discrete individuals was prevalent. Prosper to their credit took that vision literally and applied it to peer-to-peer lending.

Continue reading The Bankwatch: Thoughts on p2p lending, risks and the future of the industry

Prosper is pleased to inform our lenders in Mississippi that we have received state clearances and are now open for business. We have hundreds of lenders and borrowers participating in the first auction based peer-to-peer loans platform and welcome our members in Mississippi back to our community. Continue reading Prosper now open to Mississippi lenders

Today, The Big Money, an outlet we and many others respect, published a disappointingly inaccurate story about Prosper and the peer-to-peer lending industry.  It’s unfortunate that the author’s data analysis and perspective relied almost entirely on a hodgepodge of anonymous sources.  If higher reporting standards had been upheld, the reality that Prosper has shown great promise and performed well on a relative basis over the last three-years would have been self evident.

Continue reading An Open Letter to The Big Money: Retract Your Story

Consumers who lose their jobs can’t get loans to cover periods of unemployment; businesses that encounter trouble due to low demand can’t get credit lines to see them through to recovery. Furthermore, banks are more interested in recapitalizing than in lending. Growth in P2P lending will be driven by investors seeking higher returns and borrowers shunning (or being shunned by) banks. Gartner recommends that financial services providers investigate how to partner and collaborate in adding P2P to their existing offerings rather than building their own P2P lending networks.  Full article