Zopa UK plans Young Market to target young borrowers

wiseclerk 1 Comment

Zopa UK said it will introduce 'Young Markets' (Young36 and Young60) specifically for borrowers aged 20 to 25. The need for this arises from the fact that currently many applications are turned down – not because the borrowers have any negative marks on their credit history – rather they don't have sufficient history of debt.

Zopa will still check borrowers in this age group (identity, fraud, affordability, adress and employment). As long as they have no history of bad debt they will be approved for borrowing on the Young Market. 

The new young market segment will allow Zopa to advertise the service focussed on young borrowers, which are internet savvy and open to the p2p lending concept.

Source

Lending Club files S-1, step towards reopening for individual lenders

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On June 20th, Lendingclub.com filed a registration statement with the SEC to issue up to 600 million US$ in Member Payment Dependent Notes. The notes will be backed by loans and sold to lenders. The process for lenders remains pretty much the same as before the quiet period, only the legal setup will change to comply with regulation.

Link to SEC filing of Lending Club

Press release by Lendingclub regarding the SEC filing

Netbanker extracted some interesting data from the 100+ page Lendingclub filing. 

Globefunder with new homepage

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Globefunder's site got a new layout. It looks more structured and professional now.

Also it seems that Globefunder will open its d2c lending (d2c="direct to consumer") to individual lenders. Only in May an announcement of Globefunder sounded like under dtc lending the company would on the lender site be open only to institutional investors.

Now there are "Coming soon Lend Money to make money" signs on the new site. But it's not available yet. Clicking on them displays the message

We're sorry, that option isn't available yet at GlobeFunder.com. Please check back again soon, as we continue to make improvements to the site.

MyC4 with accounting troubles

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Since the new release, MyC4.com has encoutered repeated accounting problems, sometimes with wrong interest calculations, sometimes requiring correction of user account balances. 

Examples of incidents: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

MyC4's staff has been quick to respond to the problems and usually is fixing them fast.
But I believe the issue here is, that p2p lending through a foreign internet startup requires a great amount of trust. And while lenders are used to bugs in new internet application, they do expect a high standard when it comes to accounting. After all no user of online banking would accept that he has to check the interest calculations made by the bank. 

The MyC4 team did a good job developing the platform so far and earned at lot of trust; but if the problems persists this might be an obstacle to further growth. 

Fynanz lending bonus

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Fynanz announced a lending bonus.

We're excited to announce that we're giving you and other lenders who lend $3,000 or more, a 3% Lending Bonus. That's on top of the great rates that you're already earning as a lender through the Fynanz Student Loan Marketplace …

Lending Bonus is earned on the aggregate amount you lend across all the loans you make, provided you have lent at least $3,000 in loans between May 15th and September 15, 2008 up to a maximum of $50,000 in aggregate loans

Lenders can earn an additional 2%, if they refer at least 5 new lenders, which each lend 50 US$ minimum.

In a recent "Tips for Borrowers" post, Fynanz says it added 700 more approved schools whose students may apply for a Fynanz loan.

DhanaX brings p2p lending to India

wiseclerk 2 Comments

DhanaX.com introduces p2p lending to India. Lenders can loan to borrowers that a screened by an "agent". The agents typically are small microfinance organisations, rural technology centers or non goverment organizations. One current example is the SOS Family Strength Organisation of Dr. Hermann Gmeiner. Since there is no established credit rating system in India, agents will check the ability of the borrower to repay the loan looking at 40 parameters like borrowers income, stability, occupation.

Some key facts on the dhanaX lending model:

  • Lenders can either loan to a single borrower or diversify and fund multiple loans with small amounts
  • Minimum investment for lenders is 1,000 Rs (approx 23 US$)
  • Maximum investment per lender is 1 million Rs
  • Borrower can borrow up to 20,000 Rs (approx. 460 US$)
  • Fees: dhanaX charges lenders a 100 Rs sign up fee and 1.5% fee of the monthly repayments. Borrowers are charged 6.5% of the loan amount
  • Only Indian nationals can lend, non-resident Indians can lend provided their bank account matches certain specifications

Siva Prasad Cotipalli and Prashant Mishra founded dhanaX using family and friends, prize money from a business plan competition and funds from an angel investor. They talk about the aspects of entrepreneurship in India in a "Making Of" video.