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Peer to Peer Lending Company Prosper.com Turns Five Years Old
Posted by: | CommentsProsper.com, a company which operates a peer to peer lending marketplace, turned five years old last month. Its half-decade history has been characterized by a number of ups and downs, including an initial excitement from investors on the site, a period of heartache when the SEC took over regulatory oversight of the peer to peer lending industry and a period of new growth since 2008.
Here’s Prosper.com’s Press Release:
Five years ago, Prosper.com : was launched, creating the world´s first online peer-to-peer loans marketplace. To celebrate its fifth anniversary, Prosper will run a special one-day promotion for borrowers tomorrow. For all new loans submitted on February 17, 2011, Prosper will cover the borrower´s second month´s payment up to $300.*
“As a thank you to the Prosper community, we´re pleased to offer this promotion to help borrowers save even more money,” said Chris Larsen, CEO and co-founder of Prosper.com. “Without the support of our members and the hard work of my colleagues, Prosper wouldn´t be what it is today.”
Larsen had previously co-founded and built E-LOAN into what was heralded as one of the most trusted consumer brands. Prosper was a continuation of his vision to leverage the Internet to make consumer lending markets more efficient, transparent and trustworthy. When Prosper launched in 2006, it ushered in a new era of consumer lending that removed barriers for borrowers and created a new asset class with social and financial benefits for individual investors.
Today, Prosper has grown into a thriving community of lenders and borrowers with more than 1 million members and approximately $220 million in funded loans. Prosper´s five years of experience and actual P2P lending data, along with its world-class risk management team, enables the best borrowers to get rates as low as 5.9% APR**, and investors to get actual annual returns averaging 10%***- the best in the category : .
To celebrate its birthday and thank the community, Prosper will run a limited time promotion tomorrow only. For anyone who applies for a loan : on Prosper.com and submits a listing on the site on Thursday, February 17, between 12:00 a.m. PT and 11:59 p.m. PT, Prosper will cover their second month´s payment up to $300.* Complete information on the terms and conditions of this promotion can be found online at the Prosper Blog : . Or click here : to view the latest borrower rates.
“I couldn´t be more excited about the future of the industry,” Larsen added. “While traditional banking and Wall Street credit continue to leave many people without access to funds, we are seeing an increasing number of loans funded on Prosper. In 2011, Prosper will continue to refine its platform and provide borrowers with the best interest rates while continuing to provide our lenders with the industry´s best return rates.”
To learn more about Prosper please visit www.prosper.com :
*To be eligible for the promotion, a borrower must submit a loan listing between 12:00 a.m. and 11:59 p.m. PT on February 17, 2011, and that loan listing must result in an originated loan. If a borrower meets these criteria, Prosper will credit the borrower´s second loan payment up to $300. The credit will be posted to the borrower´s account within 30 days of receiving the borrower´s first payment. All personal loans are made by WebBank, a Utah-chartered Industrial Bank. Eligibility for a loan is not guaranteed and requires that a sufficient number of investors commit to fund the loan.
**Based on personal loans made to borrowers with an AA Prosper Rating.
APRs by Prosper Rating range from 5.93% (AA) to 35.64% (E). Rate offered is based on Prosper Rating and other factors and the actual rate may differ. Eligibility for a loan is not guaranteed and requires that a sufficient number of investors commit to fund the loan. Refer to Borrower Registration Agreement for all terms and conditions. All loans made by WebBank, a Utah-chartered Industrial Bank.
*** Net Annualized Returns represent the actual returns on Borrower Payment Dependent Notes (“Notes”) issued and sold by Prosper since July 15, 2009. To be included in the calculation of Net Annualized Returns, Notes must be associated with a borrower loan originated more than 10 months ago; this calculation uses loans originated through February 28, 2010. To calculate Net Annualized Returns, all payments received on borrower loans corresponding to eligible Notes, net of principal repayment, credit losses and servicing costs for such loans, are aggregated then divided by the average daily amount of aggregate outstanding principal for such loans. To annualize this cumulative return, the cumulative number is divided by the dollar-weighted average age of the loans in days and then multiplied by 365. Net Annualized Returns are not necessarily indicative of the future performance of any Notes. All calculations made as of December 31, 2010.
About Prosper
Prosper Marketplace Inc. is the world’s largest peer-to-peer lending : marketplace with over one million members and more than $218 million in funded loans.
Prosper allows people to invest : in each other in a way that is financially and socially rewarding.
Borrowers list loan requests between $2,000 and $25,000 with loan terms of 1,3, or 5 years. For example, a $5,000 loan with a 3 year loan term for a person with a Prosper Rating of A would have an 11.65% APR and scheduled monthly payments of $160.28. Individual and institutional investors invest in minimum increments of $25 on loan listings they select. In addition to credit scores, ratings and histories, investors can consider borrowers’ personal loan descriptions, endorsements from friends, and community affiliations. Once the auction ends, Prosper handles the funding and servicing of the loan on behalf of the matched borrowers and investors.
Prosper was co-founded by Chris Larsen, co-founder of E-LOAN. Prosper has raised $57.7 million in venture capital and is backed by financial and technology luminaries including, Jim Breyer of Accel Partners; Bob Kagle of Benchmark Capital; CompuCredit; Omidyar Network; Capital One Co-founder Nigel Morris of QED Investors; Court Coursey of TomorrowVentures; and Larry Cheng of Volition Capital.
This article (Peer to Peer Lending Company Prosper.com Turns Five Years Old) was originally developed by and is property of American Banking News. Checkout American Banking News for up-to-date banking news and peer to peer lending news.
Well maybe that need to decline overdraft protection wasn’t really necessary after all.
Imagine being out for dinner with your family and having your debit card declined. Not because of insufficient funds. But because you decided to have an appetizer that put your total bill over $50.
That could be a situation many customers will face if JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Bank of America (BAC) are successful at placing a cap on the dollar amount of debit card transactions.
In a story being reported by CNNMoney.com, Chase and B of A are considering imposing a cap at either $50 or $100, according to a source with knowledge of the proposal.
The fees are being considered in response to recent proposed legislation by the Federal Reserve that would cap interchange fees.
Interchange fees are fees charged to retailers every time you use your debit card. Currently banks receive an average of 44 cents per transaction. Those fees add up to about $16 billion per year for the banks.
The new legislation would impose a cap of 12 cents. For a bank like Chase, that could mean a loss of $1 billion a year.
And Chase may not be alone. Other major issuers are also projecting huge losses from the interchange fee cap. And indications are, they’re not likely to let that revenue go away without a fight.
Joe Price, president of consumer banking for Bank of America, said in an e-mailed statement that the lower fee wouldn’t fairly compensate the bank for the infrastructure and services it provides to retailers.
And consumers would end up feeling the pain when Bank of America is forced to recoup costs “by increasing the cost of their everyday debit card transactions, limiting their payment choices, and impacting industry innovation,” according to the email.
Retailers have been lobbying for these changes for years, but are quickly finding out that they should be careful what they wish for.
If a cap like this does make its way into accounts across the board, consumers would be forced to write checks, withdraw cash from ATMs, or put their spending on credit cards. All of which could fundamentally change the amount that they spend.
The revenue banks get from interchange fees helps to offset money lost from fraudulent transactions. So with the Fed’s proposed cap in place, banks argue they won’t have the money to protect themselves against fraud. And, of course, the bigger the purchase the bigger the risk, so banks are considering limiting consumers’ ability to pay by debit card.
“If banks cannot recapture their fraud-prevention costs, it is likely that a lower percentage of transactions at the point of sale would be approved,” Price said. “If the final rules that are issued in April look like the draft, there’s no question that it will impact how we and other issuers price deposit and payment services and what features and benefits are included.”
But a Bank of America spokesman declined to comment on whether the bank would cap debit card purchases at $50 or $100.
Representatives from Wells Fargo (WFC) and HSBC (HBC) declined to comment on their plans, while a spokeswoman from Citi (C) said the bank isn’t making any changes at this time.
This article (Will JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) Impose a Debit Card Limit?) was originally developed by and is property of American Banking News. Checkout American Banking News for up-to-date banking news and peer to peer lending news.
Equities research analysts at Barclays Capital (NYSE: BCS) boosted their price target on shares of LTX-Credence (NASDAQ: LTXC) from $8.00 to $11.00 in a research note to investors on Friday. The analysts currently have an “equal weight” rating on the stock.
Separately, analysts at Needham & Company upgraded shares of LTX-Credence from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note to investors on Wednesday, February 2nd.
Shares of LTX-Credence (NASDAQ: LTXC) traded up 1.68% during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $9.10. LTX-Credence has a 52 week low of $4.98 and a 52 week high of $11.34. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $8.71 and its 200-day moving average is $7.16. The company has a market cap of $449.1 million and a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.72.
LTX-Credence last announced its quarterly results on Thursday, February 24th. The company reported $0.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the previous quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters consensus estimate of $0.14 EPS by $0.04. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.03 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that LTX-Credence will post $0.22 EPS next quarter.
LTX-Credence Corporation (LTX-Credence) provides focused, automated test equipment (ATE) solutions. It designs, manufactures, markets and services ATE solutions that address the test requirements of the wireless, computing, automotive and digital consumer market segments. Semiconductor designers and manufacturers globally use its equipment to test their devices during two stages of the semiconductor manufacturing process; wafer probe and final package test. After testing, these devices are then incorporated into a range of products, including computers, mobile internet equipment, personal communication products, consumer products, and in portable electronics for power management.
This article (Barclays Capital (BCS) Analysts Raise Price Target on LTX-Credence (LTXC) Shares to $11.00) was originally developed by and is property of American Banking News. Checkout American Banking News for up-to-date banking news and peer to peer lending news.