Last week, Prosper began testing Prosper Premier, a new service positioned to compete with Lending Club’s PRIME.

The new service is aimed at investors who are interested in P2P investing but do not want to spend time researching which loans to invest in. These passive investors are invited to fill out a form (see image below) to gauge their risk level and desired asset allocation.

Investors who take part in Premier will benefit from having their funds invested automatically based on risk and reinvestment preferences and will have priority access to a dedicated Investor Services Manager.

The service requires a minimum investment of $25,000 and a 0.8% one-time fee for the account set up. These requirements are exactly the same for Lending Club’s PRIME service.

Prosper and Lending Club both presented at FinovateStartup 2009.