Social Lending Network reports that the company did a soft launch of its IRA product to a small group of customers in November, but now the account option is available to all investors. Like Lending Club’s IRA option, Prosper’s IRA will be a self-directed IRA that’s managed by a third-party. Prosper will be using Sterling Trust as its partner. Prosper has also placed a $10,000 minimum to open an IRA account.

The big question is whether or not you should use your IRA to invest in peer-to-peer lending. If you have a 401K plan or other retirement plan through your job or business and are already investing in stocks and bonds, Prosper or Lending Club’s IRA option could be a great way to reduce the taxes you pay on peer-to-peer lending. If you’re not already investing for retirement using another tax advantaged account, your IRA should probably be used for something that’s less of an alternative investment. I’m excited about the rates of return that peer-to-peer lending offers, but they have less than a five year track record. Putting money into peer-to-peer loans probably isn’t the investment that you want to bet your retirement on, at least, not yet.

Anyone interested in opening a Prosper IRA can do so at www.prosper.com/ira/

This article (Prosper Announces IRA Account Option) was originally developed by and is property of Peer to Peer Lending News. Checkout P2P Lending News for the latest social lending, microfinance and financial innovation news.

It’s also interesting to note that the study only contains data dating back to July of 2009, when Prosper revamped its business model. Before that date, Prosper did not place stringent enough requirements on borrowers and made use of a reverse Dutch auction model which caused investors to bid each other down to the point where interest rates made little financial sense. As a result, many early investors lost money by investing in peer-to-peer loans on Prosper, resulting in a class action lawsuit against the company.

Prosper has had gotten its act together much more in the last year, but issuing dishonest, self-congratulating press releases is not a great way to inspire confidence.

Here’s the text of the release:

Independent Audit Confirms Industry-Best Returns of P2P Lender Prosper.com

Industry-first independent audit demonstrates a model for transparency in P2P lending, verifies Prosper’s industry-leading returns

San Francisco – January 25, 2012 – Following a year that ended with 178% year-over-year growth, Prosper, a peer-to-peer lending marketplace for personal loans, today announced that Ashland Partners & Company LLP has released the results of its independent audit of investor returns on Prosper.com. The independent audit represents a first in P2P lending, setting the stage for full transparency and return on investment (ROI) verification.

The report confirmed Prosper’s 10.69% annualized seasoned rate of return, net of fees, for the period of July 1, 2009 through September 30, 2011. This is the first time an accredited, independent organization has conducted a comprehensive audit of P2P lending returns.

Ashland is a leading provider of compliance consultation and verification services to the investment management community, with offices in the U.S., Shanghai, Tokyo and Seoul. Ashland is specializes in GIPS verification and consultation.

“Our investors need the highest degree of confidence in the transparency, accuracy and reliability of our high-yield P2P lending returns,” said Chris Larsen, Prosper’s co-founder and CEO. “We conducted this audit because we believe that high minimum standards, full data transparency and rigorous self-regulation are critical to earning customer trust and protecting the long-term viability of this industry.”

Prosper contracted Ashland to conduct a comprehensive audit of its individual loans and operational infrastructure in accordance with attestation standards established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Ashland examined a specified Schedule of Performance for the Prosper All Rated Notes by Vintage Month Performance Record for the period July 1, 2009 through September 30, 2011.

Prosper is the only P2P lender to report seasoned returns, which it first reported in October 2011. Seasoned returns are a more conservative and accurate indicator of returns, reflecting a loan or portfolio of loans that has matured enough for the performance to stabilize. This return is thought to more accurately reflect the true underlying return of the asset.

On November 4, 2011, Prosper held the industry’s first P2P Lending Performance Measurement Summit to discuss the need for industry performance measurement standards in the U.S. Prosper senior executives discussed the need for rigorous analytics, full transparency of metrics and a call for seasoned returns in P2P lending. Prosper requested the audit by Ashland Partners & Company to establish the first set of P2P lending standards.

“Prosper is committed to regular audits of its returns to verify our performance and continue to earn the trust of our investor community,” said Joseph Toms, chief investment officer of Prosper. “As the peer-to-peer lending industry continues to experience such dramatic growth, we look forward to continuing to set the industry standard in reliable investor returns, and transparency and accountability.”

For a full copy of the P2P lending industry’s first independent performance report or to learn more about Prosper’s lender returns and competitive personal loans, visit www.prosper.com.

This article (Prosper Hires Auditor to Confirm Investment Returns, Issues Self-Congratulatory Press Release) was originally developed by and is property of Peer to Peer Lending News. Checkout P2P Lending News for the latest social lending, microfinance and financial innovation news.

Anyone interested in registering can do so at http://www.prosper.com/prm/payoffdebt.html. The deadline to enter is January 31^st, 2012.

Here’s the fine-print:

* NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A PRODUCT PURCHASE WILL NOT IMPROVE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. INTERNET ACCESS IS REQUIRED TO ENTER. Void where prohibited. Offered and open only to legal residents of the fifty U.S and D.C., who are 18 or older at time of entry. Starts on or about 11:00 pm PT on January 12, 2012 and ends at 11:59 pm PT on January 31, 2012. Enter once each day (each an “Individual Entry”). You will also receive two Entries (each “Referral Entries”) for every entrant you refer (a “Referral Entrant”); provided, that the Referral Entrant entered the Promotion through the referral link that you received upon your first Individual Entry into the Promotion. Limit one Individual Entry per person per day. Limit twenty-five total Entries (Individual Entries and Referral Entries combined) per person. Prize (1): $1,000 (awarded in the form of a check). The odds of winning depend on the number of eligible Entries received. To enter, go to www.prosper.com/payoffdebt. Subject to these complete official rules.

This article (Prosper Holding “Pay Off My Debt” Sweepstakes) was originally developed by and is property of Peer to Peer Lending News. Checkout P2P Lending News for the latest social lending, microfinance and financial innovation news.

Prosper wrote the following on its blog yesterday, “We’re proud to introduce Prosper.com designed specifically for mobile phones, available now for our valued investors. With Prosper Mobile for iPhones and Android devices, you can manage your account, invest in listings and transfer funds while you’re on-the-go.”

To access Prosper’s mobile website, simply navigate to Prosper.com on your mobile phone. Alternatively, you can navigate to M.Prosper.Com on your computer to view the mobile interface.

This article (Prosper Launches Updated Mobile Site) was originally developed by and is property of Peer to Peer Lending News. Checkout P2P Lending News for the latest social lending, microfinance and financial innovation news.

Prosper and Lending Club facilitated a total of $40.5 million in loans between borrowers and investors during the month of December, marking the strongest month in U.S. peer-to-peer lending history.

Lending Club lead the way, issuing $31,007,025 across 2,267 loans. This is the first month where Lending Club issued more than $1 million in loans per day.  Lending Club’s loan volume growth was up a whopping 12.68% over its November total of $27,518,650. The significant month over month growth can be primarily attributed to Lending Club issuing a larger average loan size. During the month of November, Lending Club’s average loan size was $13,329. In December, the average loan size increased to $13,677. There was a 1.5% increase in the total number of loans that Lending Club made between November and December.

Lending Club’s future growth is currently limited by the loan capital that investors make available. A Lending Club executive recently told me that the company ratchets its marketing efforts up as investor demand increases. It’s possible that Lending Club will continue to see significant growth in 2012 as long as the company can keep attracting investors.

Prosper also had a strong month in December, facilitating a total of $9,500,643 across 1,380 in loans. Prosper is now at the point of surpassing the monthly loan volumes that it had seen during its first peak in 2007 and 2008. Prosper saw a 5.5% increase compared to its November loan volume total of $9,003,672. Prosper’s largest investor, worth-blanket2, has now invested more than $10.25 million in notes on Prosper.

Prosper and Lending Club has now issued a total of $740 million in loan volume across 89,018 notes. At current rates of growth, the companies will have issued a combined total of 100,000 loans in early to mid-April. The two companies will also likely hit a total of $1 billion in loans in May or June of this year at current loan volume rates.

2012 Predictions

It’s looking like 2012 will be a massive year for peer-to-peer lending. In December 2012, I anticipate that Prosper will see around $20 million in monthly loan volume and Lending Club will see about $55 million in monthly loan volume. I also predict that Prosper and Lending Club will facilitate a total loan volume in 2012 that’s comparable to what the two companies have facilitated up until this point. It would not surprise me to see the two companies issue $600 million to $800 million in loans to borrowers in 2012.

I predict that 2012 will mark the entry of a third significant competitor into the peer-to-peer lending business in the United States. I don’t anticipate that that the business model used by a new competitor will be identical to that of what Prosper and Lending Club are using. I would guess the most likely scenario is that an established financial institution will try to get into the business of peer-to-peer lending.

This article (Prosper and Lending Club Facilitated $40 Million in Loans in December) was originally developed by and is property of Peer to Peer Lending News. Checkout P2P Lending News for the latest social lending, microfinance and financial innovation news.

Here’s the text of the press release:

This article (Prosper Launches ‘Fired Up’ Kindle Fire(R) Sweepstakes) was originally developed by and is property of Peer to Peer Lending News. Checkout P2P Lending News for the latest social lending, microfinance and financial innovation news.

Here’s the release:

San Francisco – December 20, 2011 – This year, the average consumer will spend $704[i] on holiday related purchases. Prosper.com, a peer-to-peer lending marketplace for personal loans, advises shoppers to spend responsibly. When added to existing debts and the variable interest rates of credit cards, the extra expense of holiday shopping can become overwhelming. Debt consolidation loans represent 51% of all loans on Prosper, and have shown consistent growth over the past 5 months.

Peer-to-peer (P2P) lending can replace high credit card interest rates and constantly changing monthly payments with lower rates and fixed, predictable payment terms. Data shows that even as consumers were preparing to spend money on gifts for this year, more than 14.1 million of them were still paying off holiday-related spending from last year, up from 13.6 million in 2009[ii].

 “Unfortunately, millions of Americans will likely incur thousands of dollars in high-interest credit card debt as a result of over-spending this holiday season,” said Chris Larsen, CEO and founder of Prosper.com. “Instead of continuing the cycle of expensive, variable, revolving credit, a P2P loan can be a much more affordable way for consumers to lower their costs, improve their personal balance sheet and eliminate debt.”

 For consumers tired of the high cost and variable rates of credit cards, P2P lending delivers a transparent, fixed cost without prepayment penalties. Prosper lets consumers consolidate their credit card debt into a lower, fixed rate personal loan that can be paid off in 1, 3 or 5 years.[iii]

Credit card penalty pricing terms can cause the interest rates of even prime borrowers to increase to 30%. And, as many consumers have found, the true cost of a credit card often comes in the form of onerous over-limit, late or other fees that can be as much as $35 each time and add up to significant and burdensome costs.

Interest rates on Prosper.com start at 6.59%[iv] APR for best borrowers. Fixed rates range from 6.59% to 35.84% APR. For more information, visit www.Prosper.com/prm/holiday.html

This article (Prosper Pitches Peer-to-Peer Loans as Affordable Alternative to Credit Card Debt) was originally developed by and is property of Peer to Peer Lending News. Checkout P2P Lending News for the latest social lending, microfinance and financial innovation news.

If you are going to invest in loans on Prosper and Lending Club, you need to have a solid loan selection strategy. If you were to invest $25.00 in every loan that Lending Club has made, you would get a ROI of 6.69%. Although this is a solid rate of return in today’s market, you can do much better by only investing in loans that meet a few specific credit criteria. If you only invest in loans that meet the specific criteria that I mention below, your ROI would increase to 9.48%.

Here are a few building blocks to consider using when developing your investment strategy on Lending Club or Prosper:

• Few Credit Inquiries – Borrowers that have had more than 2 credit inquiries in the last six months are much higher credit risks than borrowers who have had 2 or less credit inquiries. Consider only lending to borrowers that have had 0 credit inquiries within the last 6 months.
• Many Open Credit Lines – Borrowers that have at least 10 open credit lines are actually less risky than borrowers that only have a few open. Of course, borrowers that have too many open lines of credit are also higher risk. If a borrower has more than 30 open lines, you probably should avoid them.
• Avoid Certain Loan Types – Avoid educational loans, moving loans, green loans and business loans. These types of loans consistently underperform other types of loans on Lending Club.
• Avoid Borrowers with Public Records – Borrowers that have public records consistently underperform those that do not.
• Lend to High-Income Borrowers – Borrowers that report higher incomes ($5,000 or more per month) consistently outperform borrowers with lower incomes.
• Lend to Borrowers with Mortgages – Borrowers that have a mortgage consistently offer a better risk profile than borrowers that are renters or own their home free and clear.
• Avoid “A” Loans – Extremely low-risk borrowers with “A” credit grades simply do not offer a great rate of return. Instead, loan to borrowers with B-G loans that are likely to repay their loans.

Of course, you should create your own strategy for Prosper and Lending Club using LendStats and other tools to find loans that are solid credit risks. The components to the basic strategy I mentioned above are great building blocks.

If you want to find loans on Lending Club that meet the criteria that I outlined above, use this link to find matching loans on LendStats. Simply login to your Lending Club account, then open all of the note links in a new window and select the “invest” button if the loan hasn’t already been fully funded. If you’re a prosper investor, use this link to find loans that match.

This article (How to Develop a Solid P2P Lending Investment Strategy) was originally developed by and is property of Peer to Peer Lending News. Checkout P2P Lending News for the latest social lending, microfinance and financial innovation news.

Initially, I plan on using a much simpler set of selection criteria than the multiple strategies that I’m experimenting with on Lending Club. This is because tools such as LendStats and Nickel Streamroller provide enough information to create a sound peer-to-peer lending investment strategy without extensive testing up-front.

Here’s the criteria I plan on using:

• C, D, E & HR Loans
• Homeowners Only
• No active delinquent accounts
• No credit inquiries within the last six months
• At least 6 open credit lines.

LendStats estimates that this filter will result in a ROI of 16.06%. This is higher than what the estimated ROI on my Lending Club loans are, but I will also be investing in riskier loans. Unfortunately, there aren’t a ton of loans that meet these criteria. There are currently 7 loans on Prosper that meet these specifics and there have been 1,276 of these loans to-date. That being said, I believe Prosper’s automatic investing tools will make it so that I don’t miss any of these loans as they become available.

I also know that investing in borrowers that have previously had a loan on Prosper is a fantastic risk to take. There are fewer of these loans, but if you can get into them, they are definitely worth having. I’ve also setup a search selection for these criteria.

Here’s the criteria I plan on using for repeat borrowers:

• C, D, E & HR Loans
• No more than one current delinquency
• No credit inquiries within the last six months
• No more than one late payment on their previous loan.
• Must have made at least 24 payments on their previous loan
• At least 6 open credit lines.

LendStats says that these loans will generate an ROI of 20.14%.

What strategies are you using to invest in Prosper? What do you think of the two sets of criteria I presented?

This article (My Prosper Investment Strategy) was originally developed by and is property of Peer to Peer Lending News. Checkout P2P Lending News for the latest social lending, microfinance and financial innovation news.

The $97.00 video series consists of eight video modules. There are three videos that introduce the concepts of peer-to-peer lending, discuss what risks are involved and what you need to know about peer-to-peer lending before you start investing. There are two videos about investing with Lending Club and two videos about investing with Prosper. The final two modules explain Lending Club’s trading platform and Renton’s current peer-to-peer lending investment strategy.

Renton said in an email that, “I have taken the most useful parts of the 192 blog posts from the Social Lending Network as well as plenty of new information that I have never shared publicly before and squeezed it all into 3  hours of video.” In his the first video of the series, Renton said that the goal of the video series was to help investors beat the average rates of return that peer-to-peer lending investors are seeing.

I don’t know that the P2P Lending Wealth System video series will provide any new significant insights if you’ve been investing in loans on Lending Club or Prosper.com for a while, but if you’re a new peer-to-peer lending investor and are considering putting any significant amount of money into loans on Prosper.com or Lending Club, spending the $97.00 and taking three hours learning about peer-to-peer lending via this course is almost certainly worth your time.

The course can be accessed at p2plendingwealthsystem.com.

This article (P2P Lending Wealth System Video Series Now Available) was originally developed by and is property of Peer to Peer Lending News. Checkout P2P Lending News for the latest social lending, microfinance and financial innovation news.

Here’s the press release:

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, Dec 01, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — Prosper.com, a peer-to-peer lending marketplace for personal loans, announced today its support for the United Kingdom-based Peer-to-Peer Finance Association, the trade group created to guide the industry to provide high minimum standards of protection for consumers and small business customers as the sector continues to experience rapid growth. The association was founded by leading UK-based P2P finance organizations Zopa, Funding Circle and RateSetter.

“We applaud the initiative of the P2P Finance Association and fully support their efforts in the UK,” said Chris Larsen, chief executive officer and co-founder of Prosper. “Prosper recognizes that high standards, full transparency, and rigorous self-regulation with the customer’s best interest in mind will preserve the long-term viability of the industry, and we are committed to continuing to promote the creation of these standards in the United States.”

On November 4, 2011, Prosper held the industry’s first P2P Lending Performance Measurement Summit to discuss the need for industry performance measurement standards in the U.S. Prosper chief executives discussed the need for rigorous analytics, full transparency of metrics and a call for seasoned returns in P2P lending.

“I am delighted that Prosper has recognized the need for accountability and transparent objective measurement in P2P lending, which will boost consumer trust in this important and valuable new asset class,” said Giles Andrews, CEO of Zopa and Chairman of the UK-based Peer-to-Peer Finance Association. “The willingness of leaders in the American P2P finance industry to set and meet high standards will foster ongoing growth of the U.S. industry.”

This article (Prosper Voices Support for U.K. P2P Finance Association) was originally developed by and is property of Peer to Peer Lending News. Checkout P2P Lending News for the latest social lending, microfinance and financial innovation news.

Prosper.com and Lending Club, the two largest peer-to-peer lending companies in the United States, facilitated 3,506 loans during the month of November, with a total loan volume of $37.4 million.

Lending Club issued a total of $28,332,600 in loans in November, an increase of about 3% above its October volume of $27,482,550. Lending Club issued 2,232 loans in November, up from its October loan count of 2,118. Lending Club has now issued a 40,268 loans totaling $429,289,125 in loan volume. At its current pace, Lending Club will reach the $500,000,000 mark near the end of February or in early March.

Prosper issued a total of $9,003,672 in November, also up about 3% from its October loan volume of $8,706,068. Prosper facilitated 1,330 loans in November, up from its October total of 1,203 loans. Prosper has been steadily increasing its monthly loan volume since early 2010 and is now finally passing to the numbers that it saw at its first peak in 2007 and 2008. Prosper has now issued a total of 46,483 loans totaling $280,052,473 since it launched its service in 2006.

Peter Renton of Social Lending Network reported that Prosper received a significant boost from institutional investors during the month of November, noting that six of the top twenty investors in Prosper notes are new to the list this month. Renton also noted a significant influx from Prosper’s largest investor during the month of November, Worth-Blanket2.

November was a significant news month for the peer-to-peer lending industry. A new entrant, SoMoLend, launched a peer-to-peer lending service in Ohio. Peerform revised its business model with its new “Loan Options” program. Prosper ran several promotions and received $9 million in new venture capital and Lending Club was named one of America’s Most Promising Companies.

This article (Prosper and Lending Club Issued $37.4 Million in Loans in November) was originally developed by and is property of Peer to Peer Lending News. Checkout P2P Lending News for the latest social lending, microfinance and financial innovation news.

This time, the company is holding what it calls a “$5,000 Shop on Us” sweepstakes. Users that enter in their email address at http://www.prosper.com/prm/sweepstakes.html are entered into a drawing to win one grand-prize of $5,000. The contest runs from November 21^st, 2011 to November 31^st, 2011.

Of course, the real reason that Prosper is holding the sweepstakes is to bolster its marketing mailing list. The official rules state, “By entering, you agree to receive future offers, marketing and promotional communications from Sponsor, you may opt out at any time without affect to your entry.” If you sign-up for the contest expect to get pitches from Prosper about its service.

Here’s the company’s press release:

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, Nov 22, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — Prosper.com, a peer-to-peer lending marketplace for personal loans, today announced a sweepstakes offering shoppers preparing to spend big this holiday shopping season the chance to “Dream Big and Win Big” by participating in its “$5,000 Shop on Us” sweepstakes.

During the promotion period, shoppers eager for a chance to fatten their wallet can log onto http://www.prosper.com/prm/sweepstakes.html to complete the sweepstakes form. The sweepstakes will run from November 21, 2011 through November 30, 2011.

To enter the contest and see a complete list of official rules, please visit http://www.prosper.com/prm/sweepstakes.html

About Prosper Prosper Marketplace Inc., a peer-to-peer lending marketplace that brings together creditworthy borrowers with individual and institutional investors, allows people to invest in each other in a way that is financially and socially rewarding. Individual and institutional investors invest in minimum increments of $25 on loan listings they select. In addition to credit scores, ratings and histories, investors can consider borrowers’ personal loan descriptions, endorsements from friends, and community affiliations. Prosper handles the servicing of the loan on behalf of the matched borrowers and investors. Prosper was co-founded by Chris Larsen, co-founder of E-LOAN. Prosper has raised $83.85 million in venture capital and is backed by financial and technology luminaries including, Jim Breyer of Accel Partners; Tim Draper of Draper Fisher Jurvetson; Jerome Contro of Crosslink Capital, CompuCredit; Omidyar Network; Capital One Co-founder Nigel Morris of QED Investors; Court Coursey of TomorrowVentures; Larry Cheng of Volition Capital.

This article (Prosper Holding “Shop On Us” Sweepstakes) was originally developed by and is property of Peer to Peer Lending News. Checkout P2P Lending News for the latest social lending, microfinance and financial innovation news.

Prosper announced on its blog that, “Last year, President Obama named November “Military Family Month”. We are pleased to support our troops, veterans, and their families because they deserve to be recognized and we appreciate their loyalty to our country.”

I’m a bit disappointed that Prosper isn’t really offering a better deal to military members and veterans than it’s offered in any of its previous offers (up to $250 toward the borrower’s second payment), but it’s still better than nothing if you’re applying for a loan. The deal is also only good from November 10^th to November 15^th, rather than the entire month of November, which makes it difficult to believe that Prosper is really interested in supporting military families.

This article (Prosper Running Military Families Promotion) was originally developed by and is property of Peer to Peer Lending News. Checkout P2P Lending News for the latest social lending, microfinance and financial innovation news.

The news of the new round of funding for the U.S.’s oldest peer-to-peer lending company was first reported by Peter Renton of Social Lending Network, in a post titled “Prosper Receives New Round of Funding.” Renton had spoken with Prosper CEO Chris Larsen about the round during a trip to the company’s headquarters. Prosper opted not to release a press release about the latest round of funding, but allowed

Renton reported that the funding was not solicited and came in at a higher valuation than the Series E round that closed in June. The company’s Series E round totaled $17.2 million in new funding, led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Crosslink Capital. Existing investors Accel Partners, CompuCredit, Omidyar Network, TomorrowVentures and Volition Capital also participated in this latest round of funding.

Prosper’s CEO told Renton that Prosper expects to break-even in the next 12-18months when it sustains $30 million in new monthly loans.

This article (Prosper.com Receives $9 Million in Series F Funding) was originally developed by and is property of Peer to Peer Lending News. Checkout P2P Lending News for the latest social lending, microfinance and financial innovation news.

Prosper sent out the following email to a group of individuals that cover the peer-to-peer lending industry:

While banks have been stymied in their lending and rocked by consumer backlash, peer-to-peer lending has grown to a $500 million industry. Prosper alone has grown 367% year-over-year in loans funded compared to the third quarter of 2010, marking 12 consecutive months of growth.

Yet, the nagging question has been: With the growth in the industry and only two major players, how does a p2plending investor get a clear picture on risk and returns?

What we’ll discuss:

1)     Consumer credit industry standards for measuring risk performance: the practice of analyzing loan vintages

2)     Why Prosper reports Seasoned Returns, and why we think this measure is important

3)     How p2plending investors measure risk vis-à-vis return

4)     Call for an industry standard on measuring p2plending returns, and what Prosper is doing about it

We look forward to your questions and insights at the Summit.

Bloggers interested in registering for the webinar can do so at this link.

This article (Prosper to Host Performance Measurement Webinar) was originally developed by and is property of Peer to Peer Lending News. Checkout P2P Lending News for the latest social lending, microfinance and financial innovation news.

Prosper has written a blog-post on the changes.

Here’s an email that Prosper sent out to investors regarding the new dashboard:

Dear Matthew,

We’re excited to introduce important account enhancements for our investors:

- Asset allocation by Prosper Rating, term and Note status.

- Reporting of Annualized Return on Investment, with an emphasis on Seasoned Only returns; plus returns by Prosper Rating.

All with a brand new look to make it easy for you to see how your account is doing!

You’ll see helpful pie charts that show your Prosper investment allocated by Prosper Rating, Term (1-, 3- and 5-years) and Status (e.g., current, delinquent).

We’ve also added a report on your Annualized Returns, with an important distinction for Seasoned Return which is the gain or loss for Notes that are 10 months or older. We emphasize Seasoned Return because we believe this is the most meaningful indication of the true underlying performance of Prosper Notes. Based on our research, Note returns show increased stability after they’ve reached ten months of age. For that reason, we define “Seasoned Return” as the Annualized Return for Notes aged 10 months or more. We encourage you to pay closest attention to your Seasoned Return when evaluating the performance of your portfolio.

We hope you find these improvements helpful, and we would love your feedback.

You can read more about these features and Seasoned Returns on the Prosper Blog.

Thank you for investing with Prosper.

Best Regards,

The Prosper Team

This article (Prosper.com Makes Changes to Investor Dashboard) was originally developed by and is property of Peer to Peer Lending News. Checkout P2P Lending News for the latest social lending, microfinance and financial innovation news.

In an email to investors, Prosper wrote, “Just 3 days left to earn 2.5% cash back on all your Featured Listings investments!* Between Actual Seasoned Returns of 10.69%** and a great limited-time only cash back offer, there’s no reason to wait – so get started today!  Oh, and did you know? Our Featured Listings page now spotlights those borrowers furthest along in the application process. Once committed to by Prosper investors, our Featured Listings are among those most likely to fund, so you can invest more easily (and with 2.5% cash back!*).”

Here’s the fine-print of the offer:

The promotional period for this offer began on Thursday, October 20, 2011 at 4:00pm PT, and ends on Friday, October 28, 2011 at 3:00pm PT (the “Promotional Period”), and all rebates will be paid by November 30, 2011 (the “Payout Date”). To be eligible, investments must be made manually on listings posted to the Featured Listings Page (http://www.prosper.com/invest/individual_loans.aspx), during the period of time the listing appears on the page. Only eligible investments during the Promotional Period that become funded Notes before the Payout Date will be considered “invested”. Invested funds can only qualify for one cash back promotion; in the event that a given investment qualifies for more than one such promotion, the investment will count towards each qualification threshold, if applicable, and the lender will be paid the highest available rebate amount. Prosper reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to change the cash back rate of the offer or terminate the offer at any time during the Promotional Period.

This article (Prosper Offering 2.5% Cash Back on Featured Notes This Week) was originally developed by and is property of Peer to Peer Lending News. Checkout P2P Lending News for the latest social lending, microfinance and financial innovation news.

Here’s the press release.

Salt Lake City, UT and San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) October 05, 2011 - Lendio, an online service matching business owners with viable business loans, announced it has partnered with Prosper to help creditworthy small business owners seeking capital to grow their operations through personal loans.

“Traditional lending isn’t an option for every entrepreneur and business owner,” said Brock Blake, Lendio CEO. “Prosper is one of the leading providers of peer-to-peer personal loans to small business. This partnership will allow us to deliver affordable access to capital to our small businesses, removing one of the biggest hurdles they face.”

Prosper brings together creditworthy borrowers with individual and institutional investors. On Prosper.com, borrowers can get access to 1, 3 or 5-year* affordable fixed rate personal loans to fund their small businesses or pay down more costly debt.

“This partnership will allow more business owners to get greater access to the capital they need to build their small businesses,” said Chris Larsen, chief executive officer and co-founder of Prosper.com. “Prosper’s loan listings show that entrepreneurs are turning to P2P lending as a source for affordable capital. In the first six months of 2011 we’ve seen small business-related loans increase nearly 85%.”

“When we combine our numbers over the past two years, we’ve helped businesses around the country secure nearly half a billion dollars,” Blake said. “In the short period of our partnership, about 80 Lendio clients have been approved to list through Prosper, resulting in excess of $1,000,000 in potential loans.”

Since Lendio launched its technology last March, more than $2 billion in business loans have been requested. So far, the loan approval rate is about 50-70 percent higher than the national rate. In the past two years, Lendio has helped businesses secure more than $240 million in capital. Lendio’s partnership with Prosper will enable even more loan requests to be approved, and will help more businesses to thrive.

This article (Lendio and Prosper.com Partner on Small Business Loans) was originally developed by and is property of Peer to Peer Lending News. Checkout P2P Lending News for the latest social lending, microfinance and financial innovation news.

One of the issues with investing in peer-to-peer loans is that the rate of return on the individual loans one invests in is often 1% or 2% lower than the investor’s overall rate of return on his or her investment. This is because investors do not earn interest on un-invested funds sitting in their account or funds that are tied up during the loan funding process. This additional metric helps lenders avoid loans which aren’t likely to originate, narrowing the gap between their reported interest rate and their actual rate of return.

Borrowers will be listed as being in one of these three stages:

1. The borrower needs to submit documentation for Prosper to verify. The further along in verification, the higher the Verification Stage and the more likely the loan will originate.
2. Prosper has verified some information provided by the borrower, but there are still items pending verification.
3. Prosper has verified most of the information provided by the borrower. Additional documentation may still be required, but loans in Verification Stage 3 are very likely to originate.

Prosper commented on the new status indication metric in an email to investors, “A borrower can advance the Verification Stage by promptly providing information and documents upon request by Prosper. The Verification Stage, therefore, can serve as a signal that a borrower is serious about the loan application and is working to complete the verification process as quickly as possible.”

This article (Prosper Now Including Verification Stage on Loan Listings) was originally developed by and is property of Peer to Peer Lending News. Checkout P2P Lending News for the latest social lending, microfinance and financial innovation news.