Countries

Fairplace – P2P Lending in Brazil

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Fairplace.com.br recently launched the first p2p lending service in Brazil. With approx. 190 million inhabitants Brazil could prove an interesting market for peer to peer lending. While financial institutions are the most common source for loans, consumers face lots of paperwork and high interest.

Founder Eldes Matiuzzo knows that, for he worked 14 years for Unibanco. He says user response since the launch is promising with about 25 registrations per day.

Each loan application undergoes risk assessment (Fairplace uses Seresa Experian Data) and only about 20 percent of applications are approved.

Loan requests are listed for a 14 day auction. Borrowers pay fees only if the loan is successfully funded. Fees listed are 5% for one year loans and 8 percent for two year loans. There are additional fees for credit assessment and each repayment installment. Lenders are charged 2% of each repayment (repaid principal + interest).

Currently the average interest rate at Fairplace is 2.99 percent per month, which is much lower than the average for the Brazilian market.

Kokos Issues Prepaid Card, Adds SMS Loans

Michal Kisiel 2 Comments

Polish P2P lending market Kokos.pl announced today a new product – SMS loans coupled with prepaid MasterCard PayPass card. The product is targeted at borrowers who do not want to set up regular listing, but need quick “liquidity injection”.

The procedure of applying for SMS loan looks as follows:

  • Borrower receives prepaid card by post,
  • Enters the card’s account number and his verified cell phone number in his profile,
  • Whenever the user wants to borrow money, he sends a text message with the required amount and keyword (“pozycz” – borrow) to number 7550,
  • Kokos.pl sets up an 48 hours long auction on behalf of the borrower,
  • When the auction is fully funded, the borrower’s prepaid card is topped up immediately and he gets SMS notification.

The terms of SMS loan contracts are predefined. The amount is 500, 1000, 2000 or 3000 PLN, interest rate is locked at 20% p.a. (interest rate cap enforced by Polish anti-usury law) and the duration of loan is limited to 12 months.

The prepaid MasterCard  is issued by Bank BZ WBK  (owned in 70% by Allied Irish Bank). It is equipped with PayPass technology enabling contactless transactions at the point of sale.

Vittana Credit

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Education microfinance service Vittana.org (see earlier coverage about Vittana) now enables lenders to relend directly. Lenders no longer need to go through Paypal for  every payment and repayment.

CEO Kushal Chakrabarti says: “Today, I have the honor of announcing that, as of last week, Vittana lenders had given over 200,000 US$ in loans to hundreds of young people who want to become engineers, policemen, biologists and much more.”

P2P Lending Topic in German Parliament

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In German the “green” party has initiated a parliament inquiry asking the government to ask 25 questions regarding it’s position towards p2p lending. While the party in the preamble describes p2p lending as a chance for consumers potentially offering them more choices, the wording of most of the questions exhibits that the green party is mostly concerned about the risks and implies that p2p lending is not enough regulated.

(Source: P2P-Kredite.com)