Prosper
Prosper.com
See our entry on Peer to Peer Exchanges.
Description
From Cuna News at http://www.cuna.org/newsnow/06/system052406-9.html?:
"Prosper.com, which has been operating since February, uses the eBay approach to loans, enabling its users to bypass traditional financial institutions--including credit unions--in the person-to-person loan process (Salon.com May 22).
To list a loan on the site, borrowers determine how much they want to borrow and the maximum interest rate they want to pay. They provide personal information such as annual income, bank account number and Social Security number. They authorize Prosper to collect financial data from credit agencies. Prosper shows potential lenders the data, including a credit grade, the number of credit lines the borrowers opened in the past decade, number of delinquencies, and a ratio of debt to income. Prosper.com manages the loan. Borrowers pay 1% of each loan; lenders pay 0.5% on the money owed to them. Participants are urged to join "affinity" groups. It's easier to get a loan when one is a member of a group, and the rates received are better. The theory is that membership in a group instills some financial discipline because defaulting on a loan adversely affects others in that group.
Some experts say such lending sites could topple the credit industry, bringing transparency and fairness to the market. The premise is that borrowers shut out of the traditional loan market can find money at reasonable rates. Lenders can get a better rate of return than they would on some other investments. Critics question the risks involved for both borrowers and lenders, the site's adherence to equal opportunity regulations and the idea that people would risk their own money to lend to someone with a poor financial history. However, the site already is proving that people do loan to others in need. Some say the site would be one of the ways the Internet might transform the credit industry into a fairer, more equitable business.
Prosper.com CEO Chris Larsen was co-founder in 1996 of E-Loan, one of the first Internet loan brokers." (http://www.cuna.org/newsnow/06/system052406-9.html?)
In French
"Prosper c'est un réseau social remixant la Banque : Prosper = eBay + MySpace + votre prêt étudiant.
Si vous avez plus de 25 ans, imaginez une banque "low cost", une banque de particulier à particulier, directement, sans intermédiaire. Zéro agence + zéro paperasserie = un crédit moins cher.
Banque 2.0 ? Mieux : Banque n+1 ! Le business model de Prosper se perfectionne tous les jours.
Prosper vient de fêter son 1er anniversaire et de franchir le cap des 180 000 membres aux Etats-Unis. Un montant total de 36 millions de dollars a été prêté de particulier à particulier. "La première année de Prosper a dépassé toutes nos attentes" s'est réjouit Chris Larsen, le CEO et co-fondateur de Prosper lors des Prosper Days à San-Francisco devant un parterre de 200 membres enthousiastes." (http://capelli.typepad.fr/capelli/2007/02/prosper_youpla_.html)
More Information
See our entry on Peer to Peer Exchanges
Lending Prosper Blog, http://www.topicpoint.com/lendingprosper/
Discussion forum on borrowing and lending at Prosper, http://www.borrowlend.com/
Prosper community, http://fanafifoundation.blogspot.com/
Financial expertise for Prosper, http://www.savagenumber.com/
The Online Banker reports on Prosper's first year, http://obr.typepad.com/financial_innovations/prosper/index.html