P2P Lending News

The two companies’ announcements were less than a day apart, but reflected a world of difference between the leading U.S. peer-to-peer lending companies in the realm of loan pricing. On Wednesday evening Prosper published a blog post entitled “Why Prosper’s Auction Model Was Worth the Wait“, and on Thursday Lending Club released an “Investor Update”  informing lenders that the average borrower interest rate would be raised by 0.50%.

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A few days ago, German P2P lending site Smava announced that they were raising fees on borrowers and lenders. Among the 29 comments on their blog post, most are negative. The critics are primarily lenders bemoaning how steep the fee changes are, and whether the increased borrower fee will actually prevent borrowers from taking loans.

Starting on February 9, 2009, Smava will begin charging lenders 4€ for each loan funded. Previously, there was no charge for lenders funding loans. The former minimum bid amount of 500€ has been raised to 1,000€.

On the borrowing side, the 1% origination fee to borrowers will go up to 2% for 36-month loans, and 2.5% for 60-month loans. Wiseclerk estimates that these fee changes will amount to a more than tripling of revenue for Smava, from around 8,000€ per month to 27,700€ per month.