Is IOU Central Planning a US Site?
IOU Central, the flash-in-a-pan P2P lending site from Canada that launched on Feb 13, 2008 and was promptly shut down on Feb 29 by Canadian regulators, has a message on the IOUCentral.com site (which is different than the IOUCentral.ca site they have used in the past) saying that they are filing with the SEC of the United States. The full (though brief) message is:
IOU Central is currently in the process of registering with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). We are looking forward to releasing an online marketplace that will revolutionize peer-to-peer lending. See you soon!
Among other modest statements on the page, IOU Central also says:
When the economy went quiet… IOU Central went to work!
The site promises to be back online in “Spring 2009″, but given the lengthy process that Lending Club went through with the SEC, I will be impressed if they can make good on that promise. A quick search through the SEC’s IDEA database reveals no filings by a company called “IOU Central”, so they must be in the planning stages. Interestingly, the Canadian site claims that they “hope to reopen soon”, but offer no estimated date for that event.
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IOU central actually went quiet in feb 2008, not 2009. honest typo i’m sure.
You’re right – thanks. I fixed the typo in the post.
Thanks for the post! IOU Central is in the early stages of filing with the SEC and we hope to file our S-1 document by the end of March. We are excited about the future of P2P Lending and are really looking forward to being a part of the industry. A quick update on our Canadian & US operations: As noted, we ceased business operations in Canada last February due to regulatory concerns. Once the regulatory landscape in Canada is clear, we hope to start doing business there again. Now we are focused on the United States. Although there may be faster ways to market, we believe the route we are taking is the best option. We have a great team in place, and we are all working diligently to meet our planned Spring 2009 launch. Please continue to check http://www.ioucentral.com for updates.
Barry Coleman – VP Marketing
This really sounds exciting to me… Great ideas, great time for it as well.