P2P Lending News » International Expansion

Kiva Launches Lending to U.S. Borrowers

P2P Lending News — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:25:58 +0000

Microlending darling Kiva has announced today that they will start allowing lenders to fund loans to Americans. Although Kiva has facilitated over $75 million in loans to entrepreneurs (Kiva calls them “the working poor”) in developing nations since 2005, this is the first time that American residents have been able to take advantage of the Kiva platform from the borrowing side. Kiva cites the current credit crisis in the U.S., which prevents entrepreneurs from raising the cash they need to keep their businesses going, as a primary motivator.

Because Kiva works exclusively with microfinance institutions (MFIs), they are not accepting loan applications from credit-starved Americans via their web site, in the same way that Lending Club or Pertuity Direct might. Rather, Kiva has partnered with Accion USA and Opportunity Fund to provide American borrowers looking for small business loans, and has raised the maximum loan amount available for Americans from the worldwide max of $3,000 to $10,000.

During this pilot phase of U.S. lending, 18 borrowers from New York and 18 borrowers from San Francisco are vying for loans on the Kiva site. You can see all of the loans here. At the moment, only 29 of the 36 loans are left, and all but one loan have some level of funding.

Some of the loan requests include video, such as this one from Luis, a baked goods deliveryman in New York:

As with loans made to entrepreneurs in other countries, Kiva doesn’t pay lenders interest on their loans, although never before have the actual interest rates from the MFI’s been so easily discovered: according to Accion USA’s small business loans page, interest rates range from 8-15%, and The Opportunity Fund’s small business page shows rates starting at 8%.

So where is the interest going? Presumably to the MFI for servicing the loan (both also take fairly high origination fees in the 3% range), and hopefully to Kiva for bringing the capital and promoting the MFI’s services. If Kiva maintains their status as a PR juggernaut (to date there are 138 articles in Google News), I imagine that the attention will flood Accion USA and Opportunity Fund with inquiries.

What I haven’t seen in any of the press so far is any mention of Microplace, eBay’s interest-yielding microfinance play. Which is interesting because Microplace already offers microlending to American entrepreneurs through MFIs like ACCION Texas, Habitat for Humanity, and yes, ACCION USA. And the ACCION USA investment via the Calvert Foundation is currently yielding 2.0% interest.

Zopa announces launch of Zopa Japan

P2P Lending News — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 23:07:16 +0000

Social lending juggernaut Zopa announced today, on its third birthday, that they will open a P2P lending site in Japan, the world’s second largest economy. The joint venture, Zopa Japan KK, will be led by finance veteran and chairman Takeshi Yoneda and CEO Tatsuya Kuboi.

No date has been set for the site’s launch, but Zopa follows American P2P lending company Prosper, who announced a joint venture with SBI Holdings to launch a Japanese site in August 2007. During 2007, Zopa launched sites in both the United States as well as Italy.

Prosper in joint venture with SBI Holdings for Prosper Japan

P2P Lending News — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 09:42:07 +0000

In a press release Monday, Prosper announced a joint venture with Japan-based SBI Holdings to expand the Prosper brand into the Japanese and other Asian markets through SBI Prosper. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Hayato Kameta has been picked to become CEO of Prosper Japan. Regulatory and technical integration hurdles remain before the site can be opened to the public. No word was given on when the new site might launch.

SBI is a spin-off of Softbank, the Japanese investment behemoth from Web 1.0 days, and has made a business of running copycats of American web sites such as E*TRADE, Morningstar, and InsWeb. Chris Larsen, CEO of Prosper, orchestrated a similar Japanese joint venture with SBI for his previous company, E-LOAN.

Zopa US – the boy who cried wolf

P2P Lending News — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 04:44:09 +0000

Yesterday, Zopa sent out yet another email message to its US audience announcing the imminent launch of Zopa US. This marks the third time that Zopa has made serious claims about launching a P2P lending site in the US:

Crossing the Pond - Jan 2006, launch estimated for “early this year (2006)”, later revised to “Q2 2006″
Zopa raises $15m for US launch - Mar 2006, launch estimated for “later this year (2006)”
Zopa revises plans for U.S. debut, will start with national service - Apr 2007, launch estimated for “later this year (2007)”

Let’s hope they pull it off sometime this decade…