Zopa LogoA month after their lending license was suspended by Italian regulators, today Zopa Italia published an email to its users explaining what has been going on, and what their plans are for relaunch. Zopa sources told P2P Lending News back in July that the Bank of Italy was concerend with Zopa Italy’s “transit lender account”, where lender funds are parked before they are disbursed as loans. According to regulators, this aggregated account qualifies Zopa as a banking institution because Zopa is holding money on behalf of lenders for a non-trivial period of time (more than a day, in some cases).

Zopa’s proposed solution to the “transit lender account” issue is to create an electronic sub-account for each lender individually, in which loan funds would sit until they are actually paid out to borrowers. Apparently the Bank of Italy has accepted this proposal, and Zopa will spend the next month or so doing the technical development required to enable it. This puts a Zopa Italy relaunch sometime in mid-September. In the meantime (and since the shutdown), existing loans will continue being serviced.

A funny cultural detail from Zopa’s email is how often they mention the month. As anyone who’s ever summer backpacked through Europe knows, Italy shuts down in August. And although most countries (even the industrious US) have slow Augusts, taking some time off (or all your time off) in August is sacrosanct in Italy. So Zopa opens the email by patting themselves on the back for working through the holiday: “Even though we are halfway through August, we are working with maximum effort to bring Zopa back.” Now that they have reached agreement with regulators, though, Managing Director Maurizio Sella adds a note that the Zopa offices will be closed for a well-deserved break from 17-23. At least there wasn’t a strike…

All in all, a 2-month shutdown is much better than the 6- and 9-month shutdowns suffered by LendingClub and Prosper, respectively. But it would be nice if regulators would take the time to understand what they are approving before they give the green light. Nothing interrupts the momentum of a startup in a new market segment like a full suspension of their business.

invest, investor, investing, lending