Prosper Lender Map, 14 Sep 2009P2P Lender Prosper announced today that they are now welcoming lenders from Florida. Florida is the fourth most populous state in the U.S., which adds 6% of the population to Prosper’s addressable market. Along with recent announcements opening Rhode Island and Virginia, Prosper is now available to 54.1% of the U.S. population. Rival social lending site Lending Club also announced recently that they were open to Missouri lenders, adding 1.9% of the population, for a grand total of 54.3% of the population.

Although the companies are neck-and-neck in the race for regulators’ favor, Lending Club continues to dominate the P2P lending race, with almost 5 times Prosper’s loan volume in August 2009 at $4.3 million in loans issued vs. Prosper’s $905,000 in loans issued. Prosper has only been back in operation for a month since reopening with clearance from the SEC, but at the midpoint of September, loan volumes continue to look 5:1 in favor of Lending Club.

At 54% of the population, both Prosper and Lending Club still have a lot of work to do with state securities regulators; so far it is clear that the low-hanging fruit has been harvested. But Texas (8% of the population), Pennsylvania (4.1%), and Ohio (3.8%) are the next-biggest states to conquer, and just adding those three states would increase the addressable market for either company by nearly 30%.

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