The Black Informant

I just heard about this website last night. We are already thinking about using it to do some consolidatation.

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Introducing America’s First People-to-People Lending Marketplace: Prosper

E-LOAN co-founder and technology entrepreneur unveil the next evolution of consumer lending; an “eBay for credit” for loans up to $25,000

San Francisco – February 21, 2006 – After two years of development, Chris Larsen, co-founder of E-LOAN, and John Witchel, technologist and entrepreneur, today formally announced the public debut of Prosper (http://www.prosper.com), America’s first people-to-people lending marketplace.

“Until now, financial institutions have controlled who is able to obtain credit and the rates people pay,” said Chris Larsen, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Prosper. “Over time, this one-sided control has bred inefficiencies and excessive margins – leading to higher rates for borrowers, and restricting people who have money to lend from entering and generating income from this vital and lucrative market.”

“Prosper gives people the opportunity to take back the marketplace for consumer credit,” said Larsen. “By providing the platform and tools for an efficient marketplace created by and for people, Prosper aims to make consumer lending more financially and socially rewarding for everyone.”

The way Prosper works is intuitive to people who have used eBay. Instead of listing and bidding on items, people list and bid on loans using Prosper’s online auction platform.

On the lending side of the transaction, people who want to lend money can start by searching loan listings based on criteria commonly used by institutional lenders to evaluate borrowers’ credit worthiness. These criteria include 1) credit score-based grades; 2) debt-to-income ratios; and, 3) historical default rates.

In addition to these common criteria, people who want to lend money can consider borrowers’ group affiliations. Groups on Prosper are critical to bringing people together for the common goal of borrowing at better rates. Groups are self-defined and can be any collection of people with common interests or experiences, such as cultural, educational, social, athletic, non-profit, spiritual, or professional. Groups earn a reputation on Prosper according to their members’ repayment records. Groups with successful repayment histories should attract more bidders offering lower rates.

“We believe groups are at the heart of fostering a culture of responsible borrowers,” said Larsen. “While some people might be apathetic about paying their credit card bills, they’re likely to be far more conscientious about their payment habits when their group’s reputation is on the line. For instance, a member of a university alumni group won’t want to shame their alma mater and fellow alums by giving them a mediocre group reputation.”

“There are likely to be people who bid on certain loans because they want to support people they care about and can relate to,” said Larsen. “For example, a successful entrepreneur may remember the trials and tribulations of getting a loan to start her first business, and be instantly drawn to borrowers who are budding entrepreneurs.”

Once people are ready to bid on a loan, they set the minimum interest rate they are willing to earn, and bid in increments of $50 to $25,000 on loan listings they select. Prosper enables people who lend to easily diversify using “standing orders” – an automated bidding tool. People spread their risk by bidding for many small loans across different credit grades instead of concentrating their money in one big loan to a single individual.

On the borrowing side of the transaction, borrowers can start by reviewing what’s happening in the Prosper marketplace. They can see what rates are currently being offered based on different credit grades, loan amounts and group or non-group affiliations. Then they can utilize this information in conjunction with Prosper’s loan calculator to determine their monthly loan payments based on a variety of inputs they select, including rate and loan amount.

Once they are ready to borrow, people create a loan listing for up to $25,000. They also set the maximum rate they are willing to pay a lender, which prevents the loan from being funded at a rate higher than the borrower wants to pay. At this point, the bidding can begin with lenders bidding down the interest rate. Once the auction ends, Prosper takes the bids with the lowest rates and combines them into one simple loan. Prosper handles all ongoing loan administration tasks including loan repayment and collections on behalf of the matched borrowers and lenders.

Prosper’s rigid privacy policy reflects Chris Larsen’s longstanding history as an advocate of stringent consumer financial privacy protection laws and practices. Prosper does not sell, rent, or share members’ personal information with third party marketers. Prosper members are in control of how much personal information – if any – is revealed on the website and with other members. Prosper’s security and identity verification systems are state of the art, and consistent with those used by banks, brokerages and institutional creditors.

Prosper generates revenue by collecting a one-time 1% fee on funded loans from borrowers, and assessing a 0.5% annual loan servicing fee to lenders. Backed by Accel Partners, Benchmark Capital, Fidelity Ventures, and Omidyar Network, Prosper has raised approximately $20 million. Prosper’s marketplace platform is patent pending.