Peer to Peer Lending News Roundup – May 4, 2013

During the week I share the latest p2p lending news on Twitter as it happens. Then every Saturday I take the most interesting news items and blog posts from the past week and share them here.

As most of us know by now the big news this week was the Google and Lending Club deal. In fact Thursday was the biggest news day in the history of p2p lending with no less than 100 different articles being published about the deal. I am not going to list them all here but every major business publication covered the story: The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Forbes, New York Times, Bloomberg and Entrepreneur just to name a few.

There were some other stories and blog posts this week worth noting.

One Big Risk Of Peer-To-Peer Lending: You Might Get Addicted! from Financial Samurai – This Prosper investor gets a lot of enjoyment from doling out his money to worthy borrowers.

Introducing: the Zopa Safeguard offer from Zopa’s blog – Zopa in the UK is introducing a fund to protect investors when a borrower defaults.

Stepping Away from Lending Club from Wall Street Oasis – Sometimes it is good to consider a negative opinion and this investor explains why is stopping his Lending Club investments.

Lending Club Strategy: 7 Tips for Solid Returns from LendingMemo – Some great tips for p2p investors to maximize their returns at Lending Club.

Prosper Reports Record Month in April from Prosper’s blog – Prosper’s president Aaron Vermut provides some background into the numbers and explains the new whole loan program.

The Lending Club – a critical review from CBS MoneyWatch – This CBS reporter questions the overstatement of the Lending Club return numbers.

Monthly Peer to Peer Lending Meetup – There is monthly meetup for p2p investors in New York City. I will be speaking at this month’s meeting so if you are in New York please join us.

Google Buys Minority Interest In Lending Club: Lending Club Returns At 11.18% from Bible Money Matters – Long time blogger and Lending Club investor is still doing well with an NAR over 11%.

Does Google Want to Be a Small Business Lender? from Businessweek – This reporter looks at the deals Google announced this week with Lending Club and On Deck and draws his own conclusions.

From the Lend Academy Forum

The Lend Academy forum is where investors go to discuss p2p lending. Below are some topics that were being discussed this week.

Default rate and how quickly loans get funded – Interesting discussion of the impact on investors of loans that are funded very quickly.

Next Recession … Keep Buying/Hold/Sell? – What should investors do when the economy dips again?

Business Lending Coming? – The post that broke the news about Lending Club’s plans to start a small business lending program.

  • Peter Renton

    Peter Renton is the chairman and co-founder of Fintech Nexus, the world’s largest digital media company focused on fintech. Peter has been writing about fintech since 2010 and he is the author and creator of the Fintech One-on-One Podcast, the first and longest-running fintech interview series.