As there is no Zopa loan statistics site, it is not possible to track the Zopa growth daily. You have to wait for the instances where Zopa announces milestones.
Today Zopa – in an announcement to celebrate it's third birthday, said:
Since we launched in March 2005, £20 million in unsecured personal loans have been arranged at Zopa in the UK. More recently growth has been boosted by the global credit crunch which is driving unprecedented demand for P2P personal loans as banks become less competitive and tighten their lending criteria. All of this has also pushed up returns to Zopa lenders to an all time high.
At the current exchange rate that is approx. 40 million US$.
P2P lending service Zopa – already present in the US, the UK and Italy announced it will launch in Japan.
Zopa Japan will be led by Chairman Takashi Yoneda and Managing Director Tatsuya Kuboi, both highly experienced and distinguished technology-based financial services professionals. Zopa Japan further strengthens Zopa´s position as the leader in its field. Zopa will continue its track record of firsts, as it will be the first social finance offering in Japan.
Takashi Yoneda, Zopa Japan´s Chairman, says: "We are very pleased to be part of the expanding Zopa worldwide operations, and we look forward to offering innovative financial solutions for the Japanese market. We will draw from the Zopa´s experience across the globe and introduce a social lending platform that is tailored for the Japanese culture and regulatory environment
German p2p lending service Smava.de yesterday introduced an optional insurance for borrowers. Borrowers can take out an insurance together with their loan. In the case of death, disability or unemployment (through no fault of one's own), the insurance will pay the repayments. To offer the residual debt insurance (see a definition of residual debt insurance), Smava partnered with an insurance company. The costs for the insurance paid by the borrower are:
death hazard only: approx. 0.5% of loan amount
death and disability: approx. 2.5% of loan amount
all three: approx 4.7% of loan amount
It will be interesting to see how many borrowers are willing to opt in to the insurance.
Lenders profit because this lowers the default risk. Unfortunately at the moment lenders can not on a borrower's loan listing whether the borrower selected insurance or not. 11 months after launch defaults at Smava are still rare. Only 3 of 368 loans have defaulted and only 2 are currently late. A chart shows the development of the Smava interest rates since start.
Today the Quebec security regulator in a press release commented on the action taken against IOU Central:
At the request of the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), the Bureau de décision et de révision en valeurs mobilières (BDRVM) issued an order on February 27, 2008 against IOU Central Inc. ("IOU") to cease any activity, directly, indirectly or by Internet, in respect of a transaction in a form of investment governed by the Securities Act (the "Act"), including any activity as a securities dealer. The BDRVM also ordered Philippe Marleau and all directors, officers, employees, representatives and mandataries of IOU to cease any activity in respect of a transaction in securities in a form of investment governed by the Act for and on behalf of IOU, including any activity as a securities dealer.
…
For the protection of investors, the AMF stressed that it was imperative that the BDRVM issue this decision without a prior hearing since IOU continued to operate its website. The Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) is the regulatory and oversight body for Québec’s financial sector.
More background on Microlending.ca. The link to the Toronto Star article there did not work. I believe this is the correct link.
Chinese PPdai.com (see earlier coverage) says it has received a first round of funding from Essentia Private equity. The amount was not disclosed.
On February 27th, Zopa's managing director Giles Andrews mentioned in a webchat "I have also been spending time in Asia and hope that we will launch in 2 very significant markets there in 2008, one of which we may even announce shortly….". In the webchat Giles Andrews also said regarding the US market: "@Tealer We also think that our "competitors" over there are illegal, and I don't want to go to jail!". Furthermore Zopa said it plans to launch an (optional) capital guarantee product in the UK market.
See earlier coverage of P2P-Banking.com on the p2p lending markets in Corea, China, India or Japan.
P2P Lending service Lendingclub.com, which launched last May, today surpasses 10 million US$ in loans. While the total amount is still much lower then the loan volume of competitor Prosper.com (currently over 120 million US$ loan volume) the growth acceleration of Lendingclub is really impressive.
Rob Garcia, Director Web production at Lending Club, told P2P-Banking.com:
This milestone confirms the validity of our approach to person-to-person lending, but more importantly, our value proposition to our borrowers and lenders. Borrowers are realizing 20-30% better rates than going through the banks, while our lenders enjoy 12% average returns. We are working to take this concept to a larger audience, so $10M is just a mile marker in our marathon.
The growth can be seen in this chart. For Prosper loan volume compare chart on this page. So basically in February Lending Club has originiated close to the amount Prosper did, when taking into account only those loans that would fit the minimum criteria of Lending Club's 640 FICO score and <30% DTI.
The statistic information at Lendingclub.com shows that over 1200 loans have been issued. So far few loans are late, but since most of the loans are very young, it is to early to tell which level of defaults will have to be expected. The statistic page also shows that Lendingclub declined over 80 million US$ in loan applications.
If you sign up via this link, you get a 25 US$ bonus by Lending Club (and I am paid a referral fee).
