This news is a week old, but I’ve been a little too busy to get it out. It seems like the SEC ordered a cease and desist. I have to admit that reading the legalese is not my specialty. So I don’t really know what it amounts to. If anyone wants [...]

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Continue reading → Prosper and Loanio Updates

The SEC cease and desist order against Prosper offered the legal arguments on a plate, now the first class action lawsuit filed against Prosper Marketplace Inc. uses the SEC filing as exhibit A to state it’s case. Regarding numbers and affected lenders the lawsuit by The Rosen Law Firm, New York, states
“…As of October, 2008 [...]

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Continue reading → Prosper faces class action lawsuit; pays 1M US$ in fines to states

Prosper has agreed to pay state regulators $1 million for selling unregistered securities. In October Prosper stopped making loans and last week the SEC filed cease and desist proceedings against the company. According to a press release from North Ame…

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Continue reading → Prosper fined $1 million

I was expecting Prosper’s Quiet Period to go similar to Lending Club’s — Quiet for a few months and then come back out better than ever. Therefore, I am amazed at what I just read…
Prosper Receives a Cease and Desist Order from the SEC
Considering that Prosper was already in a quiet period and [...]

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• Original Period Items 1903-13 Militaria Collectibles

Continue reading → Prosper: Cease and Desist or Cease to Exist?

In case you haven’t been paying attention, over the past few months several events have reshaped the P2P lending marketplace.Loanio openedZopa closedLending Club emerged from their quiet periodProsper halted lending.If you thought things would quiet do…

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Continue reading → Prosper in violation of SEC; Loanio to halt operations

Michael Sullivan from VOA News discusses P2P Lending on his radio program.Much of the program is about Lending Club which, right now, is the leading P2P lending site. There is a discussion about how the current financial crisis is actually good for Len…

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Continue reading → P2P Lending on VOA News

In a SEC filing of yesterday, the SEC has ordered Prosper to cease and desist. On page two it states that
The loan notes issued by Prosper pursuant to this platform are securities and Prosper, from approximately January 2006 through October 14, 2008, violated Sections 5(a) and (c) of the Securities Act, which prohibit the offer [...]

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Continue reading → SEC orders Prosper to cease and desist

Prosper recently added a new loan status Defaulted (PaidInFull). These loans will be grouped under the Paid loan status instead of defaults. (I think this status encompasses loans that were in the charge-off status but were fully paid).
The nightly update is patched to reflect these changes as of today.

Continue reading → Defaulted loans (Fully paid)

When Prosper.com went in the quiet period the company announced on its blog:
If you’re a borrower seeking a loan, you will still be able to create a new loan listing, which we will endeavor to fulfill through alternative sources.
The way this works is that Prosper refers loan applicants to other lending companies. After answering [...]

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Continue reading → Prosper refers loan applicants to other companies

On October 31,  Prosper hosted its annual Halloween party – a tradition that is now in its third year. While we would love to share all the costumes, we just don’t have the room, but suffice to say the creativity that exuded from the team was astounding. We had a wide range of ideas – and impressively [...]

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Continue reading → Prosper’s Halloween Party

One of the downsides of p2p lending service Prosper.com are high default rates. Results from collection attempts are low.
In an attempt to test alternatives to the existing collection process Prosper in January selected 66 cases of nonpaying borrowers and turned them over to the law firm Hunt & Henriques to pursue these cases in court.
Fred [...]

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Continue reading → Prosper loses several lawsuits against non-payers

Within the vast billing network of your various goods and services, fees are affecting everyone these days. Banks, credit cards, mobile phones and even your retirement fund, for example, can siphon funds from you without your oversight. Make it a resolution now to look for the following hidden fees and gain extra money in your [...]

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Continue reading → Fee Falling

P2P lending is spreading internationally. While the biggest loan volumes are generated in the US market, many p2p lending websites have been established in other international markets.
The services can be divided in three categories:

p2p lending marketplaces (e.g. Prosper, Zopa, Lending Club, Smava) - participants driven mainly by economic motives
social lending services enabling micro financing (e.g. [...]

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Continue reading → P2P lending companies by loan volume

As described on the September 24 site update, borrowers whose loans were 91 or more days past due on that date (and not in bankruptcy proceedings) received a notice of acceleration. The Notice of Acceleration is a warning that the loan will be accelerated in 30 days, meaning the loan will be due and payable [...]

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Continue reading → Charge-offs begin today

Prosper changed the way we report most severely delinquent loans from “Defaulted” and “4+ months late” to “Charge-offs” in September.
Borrowers whose loans are 91 or more days past due (DPD) will receive a “Notice of Acceleration”. The Notice of Acceleration is a warning that their loan will be accelerated in 30 days, meaning the loan [...]

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Continue reading → Prosper adds new loan object status to API

For a little more than a year, Prosper managed a referral program which rewarded new lenders with a $25 bonus and the referring party with bonuses as high as $50. Over time the program experienced many changes but remained a valuable means to drive ne…

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Continue reading → Lending Club opens referral program while Prosper shuts their program down

Prosper Marketplace has just announced that their affiliate program has shut down and has requested that sites “take down any reference to Prosper immediately.” It seems ridiculous to remove all references to Prosper especially since this would take a long time to remove all mentions of Prosper in a P2P lending blog. However, [...]

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Continue reading → Prosper Referral Program Closes

The Associated Press published an article yesterday - Peer-to-peer lending — Weighing benefits and risks. Although the article was published on October 20th, it seems like it was written at least a week ago. There is no mention of Prosper’s lending…

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Continue reading → Media touts p2p lending - ignores upheaval

Asked by Netbanker whether Loanio.com will face an SEC filing process and a quiet period like Prosper and Lending Club, Loanio CEO Michael Solomon answered:
“…from the perspective of (Prosper) going silent, it is actually great for us as I think we will quickly gain lots of lenders and hopefully we can wow them into sticking [...]

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Continue reading → Loanio says it won’t face registration process in near future

Just a few hours after I received an e-mail from Lending Club announcing that they were open again, Prosper sent an e-mail saying that they were beginning their quiet period. This is just over 6 months after Lending Club entered it’s quiet period. I believe that Lending Club got out of it’s quiet [...]

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Continue reading → Prosper is Dead

This quiet period that Prosper announced is a two-edged sword.  Apparently it is necessary as has been seen in the LendingClub situation.If the quiet period doesn’t last too long, it could be a huge boost for Prosper.  Once a secondary market is incl…

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• Original Period Items 1903-13 Militaria Collectibles

Continue reading → My thoughts on Prosper’s quiet period

Prosper.com announced that it is entering a quite period:
Prosper has started a process to register, with the appropriate securities authorities, promissory notes that may be offered and sold to lenders through our site in the future.
The registration filing is a necessary step toward making the secondary lending market available to the community. This is something [...]

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• Original Period Items 1903-13 Militaria Collectibles

Continue reading → Prosper enters quite period for registration statement filing

Prosper announced that they are entering a quiet period and will not be accepting new commitments from lenders. This follows on Lending Club’s announcement yesterday that it is coming out of their quiet period. It seems Prosper is interested in having the same form of loans that can be resold which Lending Club [...]

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• Original Period Items 1903-13 Militaria Collectibles

Continue reading → Prosper Marketplace Enters Quiet Period

Prosper has started a process to register, with the appropriate securities authorities, promissory notes that may be offered and sold to lenders through our site in the future.
The registration filing is a necessary step toward making the secondary lending market available to the community. This is something many of you have been asking for, and [...]

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Continue reading → Prosper Filing Registration Statement; Enters Quiet Period

Just today, I received the latest “Market Survey Results” from Prosper.  A cursory read of that letter would make you think Prosper is growing by leaps and bounds, and that the latest economic turmoil was accellerating the growth.  Well, the truth ai…

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Continue reading → Removing the lipstick from the pig

Prosper, America’s largest people-to-people lending marketplace for personal loans, released results for September 2008.
Chris Larsen, discusses what role Prosper will play and what trends we are seeing in the wake of this full blown crash of the global financial system.
Market Commentary By Prosper Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Chris Larsen
In the midst of one of [...]

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Continue reading → September 2008 Market Survey Results for Prosper Personal Loans

“In the financial news you can find a story almost every day about the weakness in real estate markets, rising foreclosure rates, and increases in the number of bankruptcy filings. Some economists worry about the effects spreading across the broader ec…

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Continue reading → Recession’s likely impact on p2p lending

I planned to blog in commiseration with Tom about being denied for a loan. Tom was denied for a Zopa loan and I was rejected for a GE Money Bank credit card through Amazon. GE Money Bank took 10 days to tell me that they could not verify my identity despite the promise [...]

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Continue reading → Zopa Closes: More Negative P2P Lending News

Hello and good morning to all our readers. Welcome to another edition of the Prosper Roundup. We have lots in store for you today, including a large section for our small business entrepreneurs and for those looking to create their own start-up during this economic situation. Drop us a line when you’re through to tell [...]

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Continue reading → Prosper.com Roundup - Small Business and the Economic Crisis

A common subject our community members talk about is: how many loans does a lender need to be diversified? As far as a number is concerned, based on my review of marketplace data I believe that that a minimum of 100 equal sized loans achieves effective diversification.  In fact, I believe there are still diversification [...]

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• Home-Based Businesses Businesses for Sale Opportunities

Continue reading → Optimal number and size of loans - other factors to consider - for diversification

It’s not surprising that lenders have recently been calling and emailing us to find out if their Prosper cash balances are FDIC insured. We want to take this opportunity to let our lenders know that their cash balances are, in fact, FDIC insured.  Prosper is not a bank, does not take deposits, and is not [...]

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Continue reading → Lender funds have FCIC coverage

It’s not surprising that lenders have recently been calling and emailing us to find out if their Prosper cash balances are FDIC insured. We want to take this opportunity to let our lenders know that their cash balances are, in fact, FDIC insured.  Prosper is not a bank, does not take deposits, and is not [...]

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• Bank of Canada Canada North, Central America Paper Money World Coins Paper Money

Continue reading → Lender funds have FCIC coverage

The collection of links this week comprises a list of reads for small businesses and those looking to start a small business. Several articles discuss investors and start-up money. Browse the other categories to read about lending, banking, and stocks.
Peer-to-Peer Lending:
• Learn how P2P lending’s popularity surges over at Seo(X)Factor.
• Tiny Crunch Newswire writes Washington Mutual Bites [...]

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Continue reading → Prosper Roundup – Bailouts and Business

Like any good neighbor, we need to be on the lookout for predators in the community.
Recently, a fellow community member was approached (via a Prosper Message) by a “potential lender” interested in supporting their listing. The lender requested additional information on the borrower’s business, including their website and/or yellow page link. Shortly after providing the [...]

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Continue reading → Neighborhood Watch

Wow, half the banks we knew and trusted last week are gone. This one bought that one, that one closed, the others merged and rest are waiting for a bailout that may never come.
“Don’t look now but there’s something funny going on over there at the bank George. I’ve really never seen one but that’s [...]

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Continue reading → George Bailey, Where Are You?

As you may have read, Citigroup recently agreed to purchase Wachovia’s banking operations for about $2.1 billion in a deal brokered by federal regulators. Wachovia’s troubles are similar to those of Washington Mutual, whose assets were seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation last week and sold to JPMorgan Chase. Wachovia sold thousands of adjustable [...]

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Continue reading → Help Your Neighbors

Prosper Marketplace’s recent fee changes on P2P loans are further separating P2P lenders’ interests from those of Prosper. Prosper is loading up more fees at the front of the loan so they will be earning a far greater percentage of their income from loan origination. Lenders, on the other hand, earn all their [...]

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Continue reading → Prosper Fee Updates: Separating alignment from lenders

Welcome to this latest edition of Prosper’s Weekly Roundup. The title for this week’s roundup comes from a Forbes headline. There’s a lot going on in the news! Be sure to check out the Stocks and Banking Industry section for more information.

Peer-to-Peer Lending:
• TNL.net presents fast pace look into the History of Currency. P2P Lending is [...]

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Continue reading → Weekly Roundup - Bottom-Feeders and the Banking Industry

Prosper updates the portfolio plan templates regularly in order to reflect changing risk and interest rate conditions in the marketplace.  It is important that you update your portfolio plans, as these updates include changes to bidding rates based on the most recent loss rate projections.
If plans are not updated regularly, there is a good chance [...]

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Continue reading → Why Portfolio Plans should be regularly updated and reviewed

Our global financial system is in the grips of a full blown crash – clearly now the worst since the Great Depression. Just when we think things are stabilizing, a new shock dwarfs all that came before. It’s safe now to say that the old normal will likely never return. This wasn’t caused by just [...]

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Continue reading → Message from Chris Larsen, Prosper Co-Founder and CEO

Welcome to a new edition of the Prosper roundup. There are many stories this week to relate. The first section of this roundup is on the stock exchange and the banking industry. If you have had your head in the sand use these links as a way to dive headfirst into what’s going on in [...]

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Continue reading → Prosper Weekly Roundup

We have completed the programming and testing on the routine to apply collection account refunds to lenders impacted by the change of accounts from PennCro to AmSher. We are planning to do the initial run of the program on September 22, 2008.  The refunds will include interest on the overage. The logic was developed in such a [...]

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Continue reading → Collection Refunds Update

Due to state regulations, Prosper banned lenders from Pennsylvania. This caused an immediate and angry response from Prosper lenders. One started a petition and blog - Pennsylvanians for Prosper Lending.Many PA lenders left angry comments on the offi…

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• Pennsylvania US State, Town Views Postcards Collectibles

Continue reading → PA lenders angry over ban

The study “What’s in a Picture? Evidence of Discrimination from Prosper.com” by the economic professors Devin Pope and Justin Sydnor finds:
We analyze discrimination in a new type of credit market known as peer-to-peer lending. Specifically, we examine how lenders in this online market respond to signals of characteristics such as race, age, and gender that [...]

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Continue reading → Does p2p lending lead to discrimination?