BigCarrots.com, a U.K. based social lending company, is hoping to make consumer-to-business lending more accessible with its new social lending site.
Typically when an individual investor makes a loan to a business or corporation, it happens in the form of a corporate bond. This is a common investment that investors typically purchase as part of mutual funds. An individual investor or a mutual fund manager will purchase a bond from a corporation and then the company will agree to make payments for a set period of time with interest.
In a move that melds investing in corporate bonds and social lending, BigCarrots is hoping to connect individual lenders with corporate borrowers on its new website, BigCarrots.com. Typically with a peer-to-peer lending website, individual investors will make loans to individual borrowers. With BigCarrots.com, individual investors will fund loans to small businesses and companies that want to take out loans.
Investors can lend as little as 25 GBP to companies and companies can apply for unsecured loans of up to 25,000 GBP for 3 to 36 month terms. Lenders can also sell their investments early by reselling their ownership in the loan on a reseller platform. Currently the website only has 34 loans listed to corporations. The company’s FAQ page is rather sparse and doesn’t provide any information about how BigCarrots assesses borrowers for risk.
MBS CLOSE: Uneventful End To Uneventful Day
By · CommentsPosted To: MBS Commentary
Though MBS were not quite as thinly traded as treasuries (lowest volume since the first trading day of 2010), the picture wasn't much better. At least that which is at risk on low volume days--volatility due to the trading that actually happens comprising a larger portion of the total--was not present. Quite the opposite in fact, as the the same trend that began to emerge early this afternoon remained intact through the close. In MBS, the 101-07 to 101-10 range covered almost everything since 1030 AM. That's a quiet, boring day. I move a lower trendline down to 3.57 on the 10yr yield to show that we're going out today at an even lower yield level than Friday. So don't let the entire day of slightly worse readings fool you... The net effect for both markets was FLAT. And in the...(read more)Zopa, a peer-to-peer lending company that operates in the United Kingdom, Italy, and Japan, announced that they have originated £3.81 million in new peer-to-peer loans during the month of January and are on pace to originate over £50 million in new loans during 2010.
On the company’s blog, Zopa said that, “In January, we disbursed £3.81 million to our borrowers, making it our biggest month ever. We’re pretty chuffed with this, so thanks to all our members for making it possible. And with our table-topping A* rates, we hope to have an even better February!”
Zopa is a relatively large peer-to-peer lending company compared to some of its non-United States counterparts. To put things in perspective, Zopa is originating about twice as much in loans per month as Prosper and about 66% of what Lending Club is originating.
Zopa is a peer-to-peer lending company based in England. The company has operations in the United Kingdom, Italy and Japan. Zopa had been planning to launch a U.S. version, but has since scrapped those plans in October 2008 citing the United States’ deteriorating economic conditions. Zopa has received an estimated $33.9 million in venture capital.