Peer to Peer Exchanges

The emergence of Peer to Peer exchanges, such as ZopaWeb

Zopa (Zone of Possible Agreement): the new company is an amalgam of a number of business philosophies. It is where eBay meets credit unions by way of easyJet, the peer-to-peer movement and Betfair. You can lend up to £25,000 through Zopa and your money is divided among 50 borrowers (who have already been screened to ensure they have good credit ratings) to minimise risks of default. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/economicdispatch/story/0,12498,1435623,00.html}

Zopa is at http://www.zopa.com/ZopaWeb/

A successful German lending and borrowing experiment, dieborger.de, at http://theage.com.au/articles/2005/03/17/1110913726676.html?oneclick=true

Other peer-based exchanges, are described here at http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,66800,00.html

The new kid on the block, in the U.S. is prosper.com. There is an interesting discussion on Omydhyar Net about the potential for charitable giving of Prosper-based lending groups, as well as of the market-driven practices, at http://www.omidyar.net/group/foodchain/news/124/