Peer to Peer Lending News Roundup – February 1, 2014

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.

A quick note before we get into the news of the week. I have been living in Denver since 1991 and I have come to appreciate that the most important news story in this town every week from September through January is the state of the Denver Broncos football team. I have become a rabid fan these past 22 years so I will be glued to the big game come Sunday evening. Go Broncos!

LendingClub Checks Off Items on IPO-Readiness List from the Wall Street Journal – Renaud Laplanche says Lending Club will be ready to go public by May or June this year.

Loan Amount on Prosper from Orchard – It is somewhat counterintuitive but smaller loans are actually more risky for investors.

Start-ups challenge big banks’ technology from BBC (UK) – Interesting article that explains why nimble fin tech startups in the UK have advantages over the big banks.

Investing on Lending Club – Whiteboard #6 from LendingMemo – Video walkthrough of making actual investments on the Lending Club platform.

Peer-to-Peer Lending: New Way to Find Yield? from Financial Planning magazine – I am staggered that this advisor has built a portfolio for his high net worth client of just 20 loans and that she is happy. Fingers crossed none of these loans default.

Watch LendInvest P2P Lending Platform Founder on CNBC from Crowdfund Insider – Watch Christian Faes, the co-founder of a UK real estate p2p lender, talk about the largest ever p2p loan.

P2P group Zopa secures £15m investment from Arrowgrass Capital from the Financial Times – Great to see the world’s first p2p lender, Zopa, going strong with a new funding round.

A Visit with Lendico from Wiseclerk – Discussion with the new German p2p lender.

Welcome Home from Lending Club – Renaud Laplanche became a US citizen in January and he shares his thoughts on the Lending Club blog.

Novel P2P Lending Strategies Grow, But Are They Institutional? from Money Management Intelligence (registration required) – Fascinating article that questions whether p2p lending is ready yet for institutional investors.

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.

2013 Consolidated 1099s Available! – Tax statements for both LC and Prosper are now available.

Capital Gains on Folio Purchasing – Taxes have been on the mind of many investors this week.

Lending Club’s IPO – Discussion of whether investors will purchase shares in a Lending Club IPO.

  • 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.