At German Smava.de the volume of newly originated p2p loans continues to fall and reached a record low of approx. 700K Euro in January. That’s only about one-third of the volume Smava funded on its peak-time in mid-2010. Smava changed its business model in spring 2012, since then focusing on brokering bank loans and the aim to rely on the commissions paid by the banks as main source of revenue rather than the p2p lending transaction fees. There are no public figures available on the volume of bank loans brokered by Smava. I do wonder if they will reach break even by pursuing that model as competition in that market is fierce.
loan volume
Zopa Turns 7 – Arranged over 180M Pounds in Loans
British P2P Lending marketplace Zopa celebrated its 7th birthday today. Zopa was the first to initiate a p2p lending marketplace over the internet, an innovation that meanwhile has grown to an industry with dozens of p2p lending services launched operating in most G20 economies.
Giles Andrews, cofounder and CEO of Zopa said, ‘After 7 years, Zopa members continue to enjoy better rates on personal loans and savings than the banks offer. Meanwhile, despite their size and virtual monopoly, banks have struggled to even stay solvent, requiring huge taxpayer bailouts.’
Since launch, Zopa has arranged more than 185 million GBP (approx. 291M US$) in loans. As older loans have been repaid, an estimated 90M is currently still loaned out. According to company statements Zopa loans now account for between 1% and 2% of all new personal loans issued in the UK each month. In January Zopa arranged more than 8.2 million GBP of loans.
Zopa Celebrates £100M in Funded Loans
This week Zopa celebrated the milestone of 100 million GBP in p2p loans funded (since it’s launch in 2005).
Here is how ITV London tonight featured Zopa yesterday:
Zopa Expects Record Loan Volume Growth in August
In the UK Zopa expects a record month of new p2p loans funded. CEO Giles Andrews told P2P-Banking.com today: “We are going through some dramatic growth at the moment. July was a record month with 908 loans for 4.5 million GBP, but we should do 1100 for 5.5 million GBP in August.”
Gartner: P2P lending will be 5 billion US$ in 2013
Gartner forecasts p2p lending volume to read 5 billion US$ outstanding loan volume in 2013.
Consumers who lose their jobs can’t get loans to cover periods of unemployment; businesses that encounter trouble due to low demand can’t get credit lines to see them through to recovery. Furthermore, banks are more interested in recapitalising than in lending. Growth in P2P lending will be driven by investors seeking higher returns and borrowers shunning (or being shunned by) banks. Gartner recommends that financial services providers investigate how to partner and collaborate in adding P2P to their existing offerings rather than building their own P2P lending networks.
An earlier forecast of Gartner from Feb. 2008 overestimated the impact that p2p lending will have on bank lending in 2010 – at least in my view – but 2010 is not over yet.
Kiva Loans Surpass 100,000,000 USD
Congratulations to Kiva. They have tackled another impressive milestone: more then 100 million US$ total loans funded since inception. And the growth curve is pointing straight upwards. 60 million US$ were funded in the last 12 months.
Quoting today’s numbers from Kiva’s statistics page:
| Total value of all loans made through Kiva: | $100,223,910 |
| Number of Kiva Lenders: | 585,070 |
| Number of countries represented by Kiva Lenders: | 185 |
| Number of entrepreneurs that have received a loan through Kiva: | 249,619 |
| Number of loans that have been funded through Kiva: | 142,801 |
| Percentage of Kiva loans which have been made to women entrepreneurs: | 82.72% |
| Number of Kiva Field Partners (microfinance institutions Kiva partners with): | 106 |
| Number of countries Kiva Field Partners are located in: | 49 |
| Current repayment rate (all partners): | 97.88% |
| Average loan size (This is the average amount loaned to an individual Kiva Entrepreneur. Some loans – group loans – are divided between a group of borrowers.): | $404.87 |
| Average total amount loaned per Kiva Lender (includes reloaned funds): | $171.34 |
| Average number of loans per Kiva Lender: | 4.91 |
Will Kiva run out of goals now? Definitly not:
But we believe this is only the beginning . . .
Kiva is about dreaming big. The entrepreneurs on the website dream about big business; our Field Partners dream about financially including all of the poor; Kiva Lenders dream about ending poverty.
Kiva was a big dream before the idea of lending to someone on the other side of the world became a reality. Now we have big dreams about making Kiva the world’s hub for alleviating poverty.
This is a quote from a Kiva blogpost from October, which also give the strategic goals for the next 5 years:
- Raise 1,000 million US$ in loans over the internet
- Reach 2 million entrepreneurs around the world
- Realize our own self-sufficiency in the process.
Kiva has my support. Let me know, if I can do anything to win your support for Kiva.