Dutch peer-to-peer lending site Boober.nl has a new look. Compared to the previous one the new design strikes me as much more professional.
However a good layout helps little when the server is down for most of the day (as happened yesterday).
Author: wiseclerk
Circlelending now Virgin Money USA
Circlelending, bought by Virgin USA in May, has been renamed Virgin Money USA. According to Netbanker, we can expect the service to offer peer to peer lending like Prosper and Lendingclub in the future and this service might be used as an entry for more financial services. (Another source: NYTimes)
Occupations with lowest defaults
Prosper.com noted in it's September lending market survey that the occupations with the lowest defaults on Prosper are:
1) Computer Programmer 0.96%
2) Civil Service 1.48%
3) Analyst 1.63%
4) Mechanical Engineer 1.67%
5) Electrical Engineer 1.85%
Lowest default rates by state are:
1) Minnesota 0.00%
2) Ohio 0.65%
3) New Jersey 0.99%
4) Colorado 1.40%
5) New York 1.56%
Of these only for New Jersey and New York there is a obvious explanation – the average interest rates for loans in these states are low due to the state lending limits. This means in these states more loans with good credit grades were founded – reducing the risk.
Prosper announces new features for lenders
Prosper has confirmed that it will release new lender features over the next few months. Most important is an risk estimator that will allow lenders better to gauge the default risk when bidding. Prosper will use its own data from past loans to calculate the risk level rather then only rely on Experian data like in the past.
See Mike's question and answers with Prosper Andrew and Matt's story on the changes for more details.
Free-riders on the p2p lending bandwagon?
In Germany at least four companies developed an approach that makes use of the media hype on buzz words like peer-to-peer lending or social lending.
Under the headline peer-to-peer lending they offer kind of a "dating platform" for borrowers and potential lenders. To attract borrowers they offer hope – even borrowers with bad credit history have the chance to get a loan. To the lender they promise high rates. But a close examination of these services reveals that one could just as good publish a classified in a paper to seek or offer a loan. The services do nothing but store the requests in a database, match them and inform both sides by email once a match was made. It is then up to the borrower and the lender to negotiate the loan terms, a contract, handle the money transfer and the repayments. Since they are not handling the money, the services are not regulated by German regulator Bafin.
Oh I forgot, the services do something else: they (at least 3 of the 4 I am aware of) charge the borrower a registration fee of about 9.50 Euro (approx. 6.75 US$). Note that the fee is not tied to a successful loan match but payable upon registration.
No wonder a German consumer protection agency cautioned against the use of offers like these. Calling it peer-to-peer lending might not technically be a false claim, but these services are worlds apart from comprehensive services like Zopa, Prosper and Smava.
P.S.: No I did not name the companies here in order not to give them more free traffic. The media already did that enough, because they often do not research enough.
The day passed – without launch
In my calendar I had marked October 2nd as the launch date of Globefunder.com. Unfortunately the day passed – no launch. I found a recent press release, which says launch will be in October and states Globefunder will launch for US lenders and borrowers. This is somewhat different from my early perception of the service, which based on the interview with Globefunder's CEO Brian Mullally. But the claim "Online, no-wait funding for qualified borrowers" does sound interesting.
No news on the other p2p lending services that have yet to launch, like Communitylend or Loanio.