Revisit: social (p2p) lending
Posted by Trey Reeme on April 14th, 2006
It’s been a couple of months since I wrote about Prosper or Zopa, and I’ve got a good reason for a quick revisit. After I responded to a comment on the Social lending arrives in US post, I did a quick search to dig for any recent developments in this very young space.
From an important Payments News post about an Online Banking Report on Zopa and Prosper:
Presuming Prosper and/or Zopa make it through these unique challenges [named in the report], the report predicts that within five years the total market for person-to-person lending in the U.S could surpass 100,000 loans annually, worth more than $1 billion.
The report is a must-read for any financial services executive involved in consumer credit and loan originations. The consumer behavior seen in this particular niche has broad ramifications even for the most traditional lender.
This is the direction in which the web’s moving, friends. Blogs/RSS; sites like myspace, Wikipedia, YouTube, Kiva, flickr ... the list goes on and on and on. It’s the social web and expect the shift to carry over into how consumers interact with their financial institutions.
Hi,
Just found your blog and site. Love the design, love the content.
QuickQuestion: Do you know of anyone/anything that is the CU equivilant of eTrade.com? I.e X is to eTrade what CUs are to Banks….
Thanks in advance.
-bruce boston QuidStreet.net
Bruce,
Tough question! There’s really not a perfect solution to x : ETRADE :: credit unions: banks.
It’s difficult because you have to look at the difference between credit unions and banks first. I’m probably oversimplifying this, but the “credit union difference” is as follows: credit unions are non-profit organizations. They’re democratically governed cooperatives where each member has one and only one share of ownership in the credit union, no matter the size of his/her deposits. Credit unions have volunteer boards of directors, and members are able to join credit unions because of a common bond they share (living in the same community or working for a certain company, for example).
Based on my understanding, however, credit unions aren’t able to directly provide certain investment services due to regulatory restrictions.
ETRADE offers investment products and their banking products through two separate but affiliated companies. If you’re referring to their role as a discount stock brokerage, I’m not aware of a non-profit existing in this space.
The closest answer might be credit union-provided brokerage services : ETRADE :: credit unions : banks, as there are investment services offered by many credit unions through partnerships. CUNA Mutual, for example, partners with many credit unions to offer investment products through CUNA Brokerage Services, Inc.
Perhaps some of our other readers could provide more insight?
If CUSO Financial Services is your credit union’s Broker/Dealer – eVision would be your online “self-directed” investing application.
More on CUSO Financial Services: https://ola.orcasnet.com/cuso/newsite/
A longer version of an Information Week May 22nd edition article appears on InformationWeek.com at http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=4TAKFH2THKCP4QSNDBCCKH0CJUMEKJVN?articleID=187203312
Article touches on both comapnies’ plans to “introduce APIs so programmers can integrate social finance with social networking.”
Interesting.
Looks like Prosper.com is starting to get some media attention…
A CUNA article: http://www.cuna.org/newsnow/06/system052406-9.html?ref=hed
Anyone here tried these services yet personally – as a lender or borrower? I’m curious about the user experience…