Lending gets personal
If you've ever hit up your mom to pay the phone bill, or are pining for your own piece of the personal loan business, there's a new option. Peer-to-peer loans, also known as P2P or social lending websites, have been in Europe and the US for a couple of years. The service is finally migrating north with the February launch of the Canada's first private loan provider. Read More
Canadian P2P loan operator CommunityLend secures funding
Canadian peer-to-peer loan start-up CommunityLend has secured $2.5 million in funding and rounded out its management team in advance of a live launch slated for Q1 2008. Read More
CommunityLend Raises $2.5M
Social lending is coming to Canada. Founded more than a year ago by Michael Garrity and Colin Henderson and following the successful model of Zopa in the UK and Prosper in the U.S., CommunityLend will be launching a P2P lending service in Canada. Read More
Fast cash just a click away
People are increasingly sidestepping banks and heading to the Internet to set up person-to-person loans. Read More
P2P Lending Emerges
Peer-to-peer technology allows for a whole bunch of things, most notably the sharing - stealing? - of music and videos. But P2P technology is also being used for other interersting applications. A friend of mine, for example, has been working way on a service called BetBug that enables people to make bets with each other rather than using a bookie. Another P2P market starting to emerge is personal lending. The idea is rather than seek a loan from a bank, you borrow it from someone looking to make “an investment” with excess capital they want to deploy. Read More
Looking to Become an 'eBay for Loans'
There used to be a joke that bankers operate on the 3-6-3 rule: They pay depositors 3%, lend the money at 6% and get to the golf course by 3 in the afternoon. Now a new company is betting it can shake things up in the banking sector by offering depositors the same rate as borrowers. Read More
Bankless Banking
We've written about peer-to-peer lending marketplaces before: Zopa (UK) and Prosper (US) both allow people to lend money directly to others, cutting out banks and other middlemen. Which means better interest rates for borrowers and higher returns for lenders. Described as eBay for loans, the P2P money exchanges work as follows: borrowers list loan details and a personal profile, and lenders bid on the loan. Lowest interest rates win. Lenders bid in increments and minimize their risk by bidding on numerous loans. Read More
Online P2P loan exchange in Canada
Social lending platforms Zopa and Prosper are about to be joined by a third company, CommunityLend, which will target the Canadian personal loan markets. Read More