Comments on: Is Citibank Concerned With P2P Lending? http://www.centernetworks.com/is-citibank-concerned-with-p2p-lending Web 2 and Social Media News and Reviews Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:50:56 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Jay Neely http://www.centernetworks.com/is-citibank-concerned-with-p2p-lending/comment-page-#comment-13664 Jay Neely Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-13664 I wrote about social lending services a couple of months ago, and when it comes to small personal loans, I think banks will be facing serious competition as the number of lenders on these services grow. Propser, which is already in the U.S., is doing quite well for its users. And Zopa is apparently doing well enough in the U.K., and sees enough room for growth in the U.S., to make it worth their while to expand to the U.S. Social lending services are better for personal loan borrowers than banks, because they give borrowers with a more poor or shorter credit history a much better chance, and borrowers with an excellent credit history a much better choice of interest rates. And they're better for lenders because obviously, they're giving them a way to lend and make money from doing so. The best chance for either banks or lending services to gain a more competitive edge is to increase the number of value-added services they offer. Each have different strengths they can play to, and they should think about what makes them different from the other, and how to use that to offer advantages. If you're interested in seeing my overview of social lending services, it's called: <a href="http://socialstrategist.com/2007/06/08/small-loans-big-bucks-the-world-of-social-lending">Small Loans, Big Bucks: The World of Social Lending</a>. I wrote about social lending services a couple of months ago, and when it comes to small personal loans, I think banks will be facing serious competition as the number of lenders on these services grow. Propser, which is already in the U.S., is doing quite well for its users. And Zopa is apparently doing well enough in the U.K., and sees enough room for growth in the U.S., to make it worth their while to expand to the U.S.

Social lending services are better for personal loan borrowers than banks, because they give borrowers with a more poor or shorter credit history a much better chance, and borrowers with an excellent credit history a much better choice of interest rates. And they’re better for lenders because obviously, they’re giving them a way to lend and make money from doing so.

The best chance for either banks or lending services to gain a more competitive edge is to increase the number of value-added services they offer. Each have different strengths they can play to, and they should think about what makes them different from the other, and how to use that to offer advantages.

If you’re interested in seeing my overview of social lending services, it’s called: Small Loans, Big Bucks: The World of Social Lending.

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