Prosper continued their strong year in July with $154 million in new loans issued, up from $146 million in June and just $30 million in July last year. The growth this month slowed to 5.6% month over month which I think is a good thing. It is difficult to grow 20-40% month over month for very long without putting incredible stress on all aspects of operations. But they have certainly had an amazing run since February as you can see in the chart above (the black line is the three-month moving average).
Below are some of the stats from loans issued in July. The average loan size has settled in to what is likely a new normal for Prosper – around $13,000. Their percentage of whole loans versus fractional loans is still a lot higher than I would like to see, I hope to see that number fall as they focus more on retail investors in the coming months.
Average loan size: $12,957
Average dollars issued per business day: $7.0 million
Percentage 36/60 month loans: 66.5%/33.5%
Average interest rate: 15.06%
Percentage of whole loans: 89.9%
Average FICO score: 699
Note: If you are wondering about the Lending Club numbers they have unfortunately stopped updating their new loan data. Their origination numbers and new loan data for the second quarter should be available later this month.
Lending club managed 10% growth month over month for what 2 years? Seems like another stumbling block, at least it’s not a February. Prospers had some turn over in their marketing department, I wonder if they are related, I wouldn’t bet against more turn over / changes there.
Your comment about strain is probably pretty accurate, but only because their back office systems are poorly designed. If they could get rid of the cruft, they might be able to focus on growth, maybe even adding SMB or other types of loans. Technology is growing pretty fast, but I’m not sure they have the right vision and leadership there to really hum. Industry momentum will carry them across the finish line though.
Whole loans – 90% and then of course they have institutional investors in the fractional pool as well. I wonder what the numbers come down to on institutional investors
Hi Prescott, I wouldn’t call 5.6% month over month growth a stumbling block, it is still solid growth. And for the record, while Lending Club’s growth has been very impressive they have not had more than three months in a row of 10% growth or more since I have been following them closely (from 2010 onwards).
And I can’t really comment on their back office systems or their technology – that is something you probably know better than I.
I may be a bit harsh on the growth 😉
Peter,
Where are you finding your $154M number? I still use NSR, which showed $147.5M last month and Lendstats only had data through 7/22.
Is there another site with that info.
CA Lender
$153,751,519 is probably about right..
Prescott,
What’s your source?
This is where I go for Prosper numbers:
https://www.prosper.com/invest/performance.aspx
I also download the historical file. But the link above provides the totals.
Peter,
Thank you very much!
I wonder why the discrepancy between the Prosper data and the NSR data.
I believe NSR data is based on the loans they see. Prosper has three pools (Fractional, Whole, Private Whole Loans). NSR doesn’t see the Private Whole Loan pool at all.