The p2p marketing phenomenon is an example of the influence of technology and communities reshaping the way the world works… sort of.
The big difference isn’t the lack of the middleman, it’s just the business model. Instead of big publicly funded companies providing the capital, you have the public funding the capital. There are opportunities to make money out of the situation and some people might be able to get a better deal on their loan. But I suspect in most cases, it is very similar to what you’d get investing or borrowing anywhere else. Obviously there are benefits.
But unfortunately, these things don’t let just anybody jump online and take a look! Well, they do, but they don’t let you take loans or lend. Luckily it shouldn’t be too long before there are a few providers in New Zealand - and there are already two in Australia!
Nexx.co.nz won a little start-up money and 9 months in an incubator for their ‘idea’ to launch a p2p money scheme in New Zealand. They are expected to launch their peer-to-peer offering now, or sometime soon.
Peermint.com is also launching some time soon, they will have the exciting twist of facilitating lending between Canada, Australia and New Zealand!
iGrin and Fosik have already launched in Australia, but you need an Australia phone number, driver license (and bank account) to play online. Fosik may not have actually launched yet - perhaps only collecting members? Lending Hub is also expected to launch in Australia soon.
Qifang is launching in China soon, to focus on student loans. Which should make a massive splash, as currently such lending in China is not handled by traditional banks.
There are plenty of these sorts of applications around now, and blogs following the expansion of p2p lending:
Which are worth reading for up-to-date information on P2p banking and lending trends.
It seems to me the real opportunity in p2p lending is people all over the world, creating a true international money market and reducing the fluctuations of existing financial markets - perhaps by pegging currencies at current rates against a common, or abstract currency. An example of this has been implemented in MyC4.com, which is all about global lending to Africa. Myc4 pegs it’s currency (MyCredits) against the Euro.
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The List above isnt quite right -Fosik isnt actually running at the moment, they claim to be launching in June.
@Mike - sorry - you can register now, I thought they were going in Australia? They say they are the leader in lending Australia… seems a little misleading if they aren’t actually running yet!
If you want to start lending right now, you could use MyC4.com.
Wiseclerk
You also have Lending Hub which should be coming soon to Australia.
http://prosperlending.blogspot.com/2008/02/lending-hub-develops-p2p-loan-platform.html
@wiseclerk - I’ve followed your blog on p2p banking/lending as well. There is also Kiva.org. But myc4 gives return on investment?
@Tom - cheers the list has been updated
@alphafoobar
Yes, MyC4 pays interest. As a lender (called investor) you bid the interest rate you want to lend at.
On this page you can see the loans open for bidding:
http://www.myc4.com/Portal/WebForms/Opportunities/Default.aspx
Click on one of them to see details, including interest information.
I have personally used MyC4 for several month and lent approx. 1500 Euro. So far it works fine
Kiva is also fine, but does not pay interest to lenders.
Wiseclerk
Nice round up of the p2p players. Glad someone pointed out that fosik isnt running yet - though they look nice. There’s actually a couple of other players that are still in Stealth, so news about them should be coming out soon.
I blogged week about a pretty significant issue with p2p lenders - legal compliance. Lendingclub had a few issues this week in the US - blog.nexx.co.nz for our take.
Hi Ben,
Nice of you to visit! Does this relate to what you have been working on at Nexx - The legal side of p2p lending in NZ?
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social (p2p) lending australasia…
The p2p marketing phenomenon is an example of the influence of technology and communities reshaping the way the world works… sort of….