Zopa has changed it’s debt purchase process due to changes in legislation. Continue reading
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Week of Solidarity Finance
November is, traditionally, in France the Month of Solidarity and social economy, and one week is dedicated to finance.
On this occasion, the French micro-credit organization Babyloan, is organizing an event November 7th and 8th in Paris.
Come and meet the team !
The author lives in France and reports as a guest blogger on french p2p lending trends for P2P-Banking.com.
Lending Club has New Graphic Statistics Page
Lending Club has a new graphic displays on it’s statistic page. Prominently featured are loan purpose, range of investor returns and total loans funded. Users can click on any graphic to enlage it. I found the ‘Loan details’ page more interesting then the ‘Highlights’ page, for it visualizes differences in trends depending on loan purpose.
Signup Bonus
New lenders signing up at Lending Club via this link get 25 US$ to lend.
Vittana Video – How P2P Loans Helped Students in Nicaragua
Vittana (sea earlier coverage ‘Education microfinance – Vittana funds students worldwide via p2p lending‘) has published the following video, where students that got loans through Vittana tell their story.
Currently Vittana lists 11 open loan listings.
Financial Startups Lobby for Congress to Ease Regulation on P2P Lending
Financial startups have formed the ‘Coalition for new Credit Models’. Among the founding enterprises are Prosper and Loanio. Two of the changes the coalition asks Congress and the Administration to make are:
Adopt legislation classifying person-to-person lending as a consumer banking service, not a securities offering.
Create a Start Up Liaison at Treasury Department or within banking regulators to guide and fast-track the development of new financial products by start-up companies and organizations seeking to innovate the way consumers and businesses raise and access capital.
(Source: press release; photo credit: Vince Alongi)
Bankless Life Launches P2P Lending in Austria
Bankless-Life.at was launched as the first p2p lending service in Austria by the non-profit association “Von Menschen für Menschen” (engl. by humans for humans). The members-only site (membership fee is 60 Euro per year) allows borrowers with a given minimum credit score and a minimum income requirement of 1,000 EUR per month to apply for loans between 1,000 and 30,000 EUR. The wanted interest rate is set by the borrower, selectable loan terms are 12, 24, 36, 48 or 60 months.
Lenders are charged 3 Euro per bid. The fees for borrowers are rather high: In addition to the membership fee borrowers pay 0.5% to 2.5% (depending on term) origination fee, 0.8% tax plus 2% premium of the loan amount for the Anleger-Pool, which is a mechanism similar to the one used by German Smava spreading default loss risks among lenders.
According to chairman Siegfried Fischer Bankless Life has 1,800 members two weeks after launch.
The German blog P2P-Kredite.com has more details in yesterday’s article ‘Bankless- Life startet P2P-Kredite.com Österreich‘.