P2P Lending

Out of the Inbox: Lending Club’s “Idle Cash Alert”

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Alerts & Messaging, Email Marketing, Email Samples, Lending Club, Loans & Credit, P2P Lending

image Lending Club, which recently surpassed $12 million in monthly P2P loan volume (see below), does a great job concisely communicating important account info. The startup earned an “A” in our recent report on transaction alerts (note 1).

Below is another example of its exemplary email alerts. In just 30 words, the company reinforces my impressive rate of return and my account balance. Then it seamlessly goes for the sale, encouraging me to put my cash balance to work by making more loans.

The only improvement I’d suggest is making the call to action, “Browse available Notes,” more prominent. First, it’s not clear that it’s a link. Second, what does that even mean? Ideally, it would be Lend Now, although I understand that terminology is not “SEC friendly,” so Invest Now, should work.  

Bottom line: It’s a win-win to provide encouragement every now and then about how customers might put their idle balances to work. Just don’t overdue it.

Lending Club “Idle Cash Alert” (27 Sep. 2010)

image

Lending Club loan volume: Aug. 2009 through Sep. 2010

Lending Club loan volume: Aug. 2009 through Sept. 2010

Note:
1. See previous post on OBR 181/182 published July 2010

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Peer-to-Peer Marketplaces Join Forces to Influence Lawmakers with the "Coalition for New Credit Models"

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Lending Club, P2P Lending, Prosper

image Caught up in the regulatory crackdown in all things financial, new models that would transparently originate consumer and small business loans between individuals, the so-called P2P marketplaces, have struggled mightily to satisfy SEC requirements (my feelings about that). In fact, all three peer-to-peer U.S. lenders had to shut down for extended periods in 2008/2009 to reengineer their marketplaces. See our previous coverage here (note 1).

Earlier this year, Lending Club spearheaded a largely marketing-oriented campaign called UnCrunch America, which brought together several companies including Credit Karma, Virgin Money, Geezeo and On Deck Capital to publicize alternative lending. You can see our previous coverage, but that program appears shuttered with the URL redirecting to Lending Club.

This week, a new multi-company effort called, Coalition for New Credit Models, officially launched (press release). This group is spearheaded by rival loan marketplace Prosper, whose founder Chris Larsen has spent considerable time lobbying federal and state legislators during the past year.

The coalition’s stated goals are largely political, hoping to influence legislators to reverse the SEC ruling that classified P2P loans as security offerings as well as adopt new programs to help support new methods for consumers and businesses to access capital.

Chris Larsen’s quote in the press release compares the need for financial innovation to that needed to solve energy problems:

This country has been in an energy crisis for years, and we are now in a financial crisis. America’s economic future depends on new and alternative credit models being embraced in the same way green technologies are being nurtured by policy leaders to help solve the energy crisis.

It’s a worthy effort, and we hope their voices will be heard on Capital Hill. With traditional bank financing still a pipe dream for many small businesses, this is an ideal time to test new methods of getting capital to entrepreneurs who can productively put it to use. 

About the coalition members
We are proud that five of the seven (Credit Karma, Loanio, Prosper, The Receivables Exchange, and SecondMarket) have appeared on stage at FinovateStartup and three of those (Prosper, Credit Karma, and Loanio) have also presented at Finovate in NYC (note 2).

Here they are in alphabetic order:

  • Credit Karma: The San Francisco-based Finovate alum (video) launched in 2008, displays free credit scores and credit report info in an ad-supported business model. 
  • Loanio: This Nanuet, NY-based peer-to-peer lender launched at Finovate 2008 in October 2008 (video). However, it suspended business activities a few weeks later to register its securities with the SEC. It has yet to reopen.
  • ProFounder: The Palo Alto, CA-based startup provides a platform where entrepreneurs raise seed funding from their social network and affiliates.
  • Progreso Financiero: The Mountain View, CA-based firm provides loans to underbanked Hispanic families using a proprietary credit score enabling it to make loans to families without FICO scores. 
  • Prosper:  The San Francisco-based startup, which presented at the inaugural Finovate in 2007 (video), has facilitated $180 million in p2p loans since launching Feb. 2006.
  • The Receivables Exchange: The New Orleans-based startup showed its account receivable marketplace at FinovateStartup this past April (video).  
  • SecondMarket: The NYC startup and FinovateStartup alum (video) is the largest centralized marketplace for illiquid assets such as auction-rate securities, bankruptcy claims, CDOs, private-company stock, whole loans, and more.

Notes:
1. For more on peer-to-peer lending, see our Online Banking Report: Peer-to-Peer Lending (Dec. 2007)
2. Uncrunch America members Lending Club and On Deck Capital are also Finovate alums.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Lending Club Offers New Lenders $50 to Get Started on its Peer-to-Peer Platform

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Email Samples, Lending Club, Loans & Credit, P2P Lending

image This morning Lending Club emailed its existing lenders encouraging them to refer friends to become lenders on the peer-to-peer lending platform. The peer-to-peer lending pioneer says that is has added 11,000 new lenders this year, an impressive 1,600 monthly pace. Lending Club now has 20,000 registered lenders (note 1).

The pitch: Instead of paying referral fees, the $50 incentive is earmarked entirely for the new lender/investor. Basically they get a free trial of the service. The offer is available for only two weeks, otherwise Lending Club risks being flooded with new accounts that just want to get a hold of the $50.

Analysis: Typically, companies pay a fee to user who made a successful referral. Sometimes with an equal incentive to the new customer. While that may result in a slew of new accounts, converting them to long-term profitable participants can be difficult.

I believe the more-sophisticated investor/lender attracted to Lending Club will be MORE likely to make good referrals if they don’t personally benefit from the referral (note 2). No matter how much users like Lending Club, if they are being paid to spam friends, it just doesn’t feel right. While Lending Club may get fewer referrals this way, the ones they do get should convert better in the long run.

Lending Club is making it incredibly easy to spread the word. Existing customers can use an automated wizard to send messages to friends (see second screenshot) or prospects may simply enter the referring customer’s member name to qualify for the $50. And there appears to be no fine print on the offer other than the Aug. 15 expiration date.

Lending Club email (sent 4 Aug 2009 at 6 AM Pacific)
Subject: Give your friends $50 to try Lending Club

image

Landing page
Includes tools for automating the process of reaching out to friends

image

Notes:
1. So far this year, $21 million in loans have been originated at Lending Club, approximately $1,000 per lender.
2. Lending Club does pay $25 to the referral source for new APPROVED borrowers. That’s an affiliate marketing strategy and makes economic sense because it’s only paid for approved loans. 

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Prosper Back in Peer-to-Peer Lending Game with Full Approval of SEC

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Loans & Credit, P2P Lending, Prosper

image At our FinovateStartup conference two months ago, Prosper won a Best of Show award for the re-launch of its peer-to-peer lending platform. But apparently, the SEC didn’t share our audience’s enthusiasm over Prosper’s plan to operate under State of California regulatory authority while its SEC filings were undergoing final scrutiny. So Prosper went offline again, waiting until today at 5:30 PM Pacific to reopen (note 1).

The company can now set aside the last nine months of regulatory servitude and pursue its vision: allowing loans to be originated online in an auction process. Sure, thousands of pages of Prosper documentation are now on file at the SEC, with thousands more on the way, and lenders (aka investors) must now meet various state-mandated “investor suitability” requirements (note 2). But fundamentally, it’s the same peer-to-peer lending service the company introduced in 2006, albeit with hundreds of incremental improvements (note 3).

The latest version launched today includes a number of tweaks that include a higher minimum credit score (640), new risk ratings, and lower minimum bid amount ($25), but the only major changes are:

  1. A secondary market is now available for lenders to sell their previously originated loans
  2. A hard rate floor that establishes a minimum yield for loans. It varies by credit score and is determined by adding the current 3-year national CD rate to the expected loss rate of the loan. For example, a C-rated loan with a 6% loss rate now has a floor of approximately 8.3% (6% + 2.3%). The vast majority of loans would have been originated at rates above the floor anyway, so the impact should be small.
  3. Because each individual state must now approve lending/investing at Prosper, only 14 are currently on board: California, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New York, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. More states will be added in the weeks and months ahead. Borrowing is permitted in all states except Iowa, Kansas, Maine and North Dakota.

On hold is the planned option to allow institutional lenders to post already-originated loans directly into the marketplace (Open Market), see previous post.

To support the grand re-opening, CEO Chris Larsen penned a blog post entitled: Prosper is Back! (We mean it this time) which features a humorous YouTube clip of him asking his dad to post a loan listing on Prosper (embedded below). It’s good to see they’ve maintained a sense of humor. 

Prosper homepage minutes after its 5:30 PM Pacific relaunch (13 July 2009)

image

Notes:
1. The SEC approved the Prosper filings Friday afternoon, 10 July 2009.
2. Investor suitability requirements may involve one or more of the following: minimum net worth, minimum annual income, maximum investment as a percent of net worth.
3. For more on the P2P loan marketplace, see our Online Banking Report on Peer-to-Peer Lending (published Dec. 2007). 

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Peer-to-Peer Lender Prosper Reopens Today at FinovateStartup

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Finovate, P2P Lending, Prosper

image There’s good news in peer-to-peer lending today as Prosper reopened for business. The announcement was timed around its appearance at FinovateStartup today.

The company is adding a loan-resale component called Open Market (see diagram below). Open Market loans are initiated by other financial institutions, then resold on the Prosper platform. Open Market loans must have been originated by Prosper-vetted financial institutions, and be current and have had at least three on-time payments.

We’ll look deeper at the new Prosper in coming weeks; for more coverage now, check out articles today at The Wall Street Journal, CNET and the San Francisco Chronicle. 

How Open Market lending works

image

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Lending Club Teams with EntrustCAMA to Offer Self-Directed IRA Option for P2P Lending

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Lending Club, Loans & Credit, P2P Lending, Retirement savings

image Ah, it’s nice to be among the funded (see note 1). Not only can Lending Club afford to push forward with the usual marketing programs such as Google AdSense and affiliate deals, it can support unique efforts such as UnCrunch America and support for self-directed IRAs.

The IRA option, launched today (press release), primarily appeals to serious investors, given the $250 annual maintenance fee (waived the first year) from sponsor EntrustCAMA. The EntrustCAMA IRA allows tax-deferred investments in a variety of assets including single-family homes, private equity, and so forth.

Interested parties can complete the IRA form directly on the Lending Club site. However, the form must be printed and mailed to EntrustCAMA (see landing page below)

Bottom line: While self-directed IRA investors have historically chased higher-yielding investments than the single-digit returns expected from P2P installment loans, in today’s environment there should be more interest in the relatively low-risk consumer loan portfolios available through Lending Club. 

Lending Club self-directed IRA landing page (link, 25 March 2009)

image

Notes:
1. Last week, Lending Club announced a $12-million series-B round of funding.
2. Lending Club will be appearing at our April 28 FinovateStartup conference.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Cology’s TuitionU.com Acquires Student Loan P2P Lender GreenNote

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: GreenNote, P2P Lending, Student Loans

image TutionU.com’s acquisition of Finovate Startup alum, GreenNote, was announced today (press release). The social student lender debuted at our conference last year (video here).

TuitionU.com is a student loan portal operated by Cology Inc. According to Compete, the traffic to TuitionU.com has been running from 1,000 to 2,000 visitors per month during the past year. GreenNote has recently been averaging 6,000 to 8,000 monthly unique visitors (see chart below). 

image

 
TuitionU.com homepage reflects GreenNote acquisition (3 March 2009)

image

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Virgin Money Joins UnCrunch America

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Advertising & Promotion, Bank of America, Lending Club, Loans & Credit, P2P Lending, Virgin Money

image UnCrunch America, the peer-to-peer lending educational/marketing campaign spearheaded by Lending Club (note 1) got a big boost with the addition of Virgin Money USA.

Not only does Virgin brings its considerable brand recognition, it legitimizes the effort as a true cooperative project, and adds a huge new category to the site, home loans. Plus, they get a much bigger number to put on the top of the homepage (below): $74 million instead of $1 million.

Other financial services participants include: Credit Karma (note 1), On Deck Capital and Geezeo. The campaign has its official launch today, although the website has been active since December (previous post).

The timing of the UnCrunch launch is perfect, following President Obama’s assertion last night that lending was the “lifeblood” of the economy. All active lenders, especially credit unions, should consider joining this effort or using similar themes in their marketing.

UnCrunch home page (25 Feb 2009)

image


Virgin Money UnCrunch landing page (link, 25 Feb 2009)

image

 Notes:
1. Lending Club and Credit Karma will be participating in our upcoming Finovate Startup conference April 28 (see full lineup here).
2. For more info on the market, see our Online Banking Report on P2P Lending.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Pertuity Direct Launches Financial Mashup: Consumer Loans + Mutual Funds + Social Finance

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Launches, Loans & Credit, Online Banking Report, P2P Lending, Pertuity

clip_image002Last month I wrote about Pertuity Direct’s impending launch. It’s been live for a few weeks, and I’ve had a chance to review it in detail. The model is so unique, we created an entire special report on the company. It is available to our Online Banking Report All-Access subscribers here. Others can purchase for $195 here. And if you just want the executive summary, read on.

Overview
Pertuity Direct is an amalgamation of two financial services plus a social lending community:

  • Mutual fund: Retail investment assets are gathered via the National Retail Fund, an interval mutual fund created by Gemini Fund Services. The fund plans to invest primarily in consumer loans originated by Pertuity Direct (see note 1). At the outset, there are two mutual funds to choose from: one will invest only in loans to prime customers with credit scores of 720 or higher; the other will take on more risk and invest in loans to borrowers with 660 or higher scores. Minimum investment is $250 and current estimated fund expenses are 3.1%.
  • Consumer loans: Three-year installment loans of $1,000 to $25,000 will be originated by Pertuity Direct under state licensure. The loans will be sold to The National Retail Fund who will hold them until they pay off. Pertuity Direct will be paid a 1% servicing fee from the fund. Borrowers also pay a 1% to 2% loan fee at funding. The company is currently licensed in 37 states.
  • Social lending: The last, and least, piece of the product is a social lending forum, where mutual fund investors can purchase Pertuity Bucks to give to already-funded borrowers to help them repay their loans.

Analysis
Whether this should be called “peer-to-peer lending” is open for debate. Pertuity Direct makes all the loan decisions and sets the rates. Investors have no direct influence over which borrowers are funded. However, there is a social element because investors can donate to borrowers through the community area. The model probably most resembles a member-owned credit union or mutual savings bank.

From an investor’s standpoint, it’s a unique opportunity to capture banking interest margin without actually buying shares in a commercial bank. The mutual fund is more like a bond, so it should be less volatile than owning equity. Although current estimated management fees of just over 3% are a drag on earnings, the company hopes the percentage falls as the funds gain assets.

However, the mutual fund doesn’t have the liquidity or upside of an equity investment. It’s an interval fund, meaning they will allow some redemptions each quarter (note 2), but it’s not publicly traded. There’s also the matter of how they value the underlying assets of the fund. A proprietary model will value the consumer loan portfolio each day, but since the assets are not publicly traded, there is no way to really understand if that model is working until there is a performance history. 

Summary
Pertuity Direct does a credible job weaving these three disparate businesses together and its management team, with experience at PNC Bank and E*Trade, have great ideas on taking this business to the next level. But much remains to be done to educate the market and overcome the hesitancy of jittery investors. We will be following them closely (note 3). 

Screenshot: Pertuity Direct homepage (2 Feb. 2009)
The company posted a 3.5-minute YouTube video of founder Kim Muhota explaining the company’s offering.

image

Notes:
1. While the intention is to invest in Pertuity Direct-initated loans, the funds can also invest in other vehicles.
2. The prospectus says that it will allow 5% to 25% of its funds to be redeemed each quarter.
3. CEO/founder Kim Muhota will be participating in our FinovateStartup 2009, so you’ll be able to hear directly from him.
4. For more info on P2P lending, see our Online Banking Report on P2P Lending.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Lending Club Launches UNCRUNCH AMERICA, a Microsite Advocating Social Lending

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Credit Karma, Geezeo, Lending Club, P2P Lending

image During the Christmas holidays, Lending Club and its partners launched a clever new microsite, UNCRUNCH AMERICA at <uncrunch.org>. The site promotes peer-to-peer lending as a way to help increase the availability of credit in the United States (see screenshots below).

Joining the effort are four others:

The site explains the concept behind peer-to-peer lending and funnels visitors to Lending Club or On Deck Capital to borrow. Lending Club was promoting the site on its homepage (see third screenshot), but it’s no longer mentioned. And none of the other partners mentions it on their sites.   

The site consists of just two pages, the homepage and a Learn More page listing the partners. The homepage uses Flash to deliver five different messages. The red action buttons lead to a special landing page to Lending Club (see third screenshot).

According to American Banker, Lending Club hired Tobin Smith, the chairman of ChangeWave Research, to create the campaign.

Analysis
Overall, I like the UNCRUNCH idea. It’s timely. It has a catchy name. And it resonates with consumers. But companies must be very careful using consumer advocacy as a marketing strategy. While most consumers understand the need for the sponsor to make a buck, they can see right through anything that appears overly self-serving.

In financial services, credit unions have a distinct advantage here. As member-owned cooperatives, their consumer advocacy messages are believable. Shareholder-owned banks have less credibility, but can still pull it off if they back up their words with a record of action.

I think that’s why ING Direct’s We the Savers campaign works (see previous post here). For its entire eight years in the United States, the bank has consistently promoted savings and thrift. So few question its motivations behind the We the Savers petition drive, though clearly it supports the bank’s for-profit savings program.

On the other hand, UNCRUNCH AMERICA was a bit misleading when it first launched (see first screenshot below from Jan 7). But with the recent improvement in disclosing the site’s purpose and primary sponsors, I think it’s acceptable now (see second screenshot below from Jan. 19).

Here are the main improvements:    

  • It wasn’t clear that the primary sponsors were lenders. But the new site includes Personal Loans and Small Business Loans sections that clearly disclose the Lending Club and On Deck Capital involvement. There is also new fine print at the bottom of the page that further identifies the sponsors.
  • The original copy made it sound like a completely altruistic effort with its main pitch, Invest in America. That section has been completely removed and the site no longer solicits investors/lenders. It’s clear now that the site is designed to generate loan leads. The main button on the homepage was changed from Invest in America to I Need a Loan.

I’m relieved that UNCRUNCH.org has stepped up its transparency. At this point in the financial mess, we need lenders and other financial entities to be totally upfront with the public so as not to invite even more regulation than what is already coming. Given its six-month hiatus in 2008 while it revamped to comply with new SEC requirements, Lending Club should understand that better than most.    

Other financial institutions should consider similar cooperative efforts in their local areas. The public could use some positive messages from the banking sector. 

1. UNCRUNCH AMERICA homepage before improvements (7 Jan. 2009)

image

2. Homepage after transparency improvements (19 Jan. 2009)

image

 

3. Lending Club homepage featured UNCRUNCH button (7 Jan. 2009)
but it has since been removed

image

Note:

1. For more info, see our Online Banking Report on Peer-to-Peer Lending. 

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Lending Club Regains Momentum, Posts 40% Gain in P2P Loan Originations Compared to Dec. 2007

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Lending Club, Loans & Credit, Market Research & Metrics, P2P Lending

image If you think your 2008 was stressful, imagine having to shut down for an extended and unknown period (it turned out to be 6 months) just 10 months after launch. Then spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on SEC paperwork that your major competitor avoided (temporarily it turns out), all the while watching that same competitor take your market share while you keep your mouth shut via SEC mandate.

That was Lending Club’s year. But unlike so many horror stories of the past year, this one has a happy ending, at least so far. Not only did Lending Club reopen for business Oct. 14 at our Finovate conference (demo video here), within weeks they had already moved ahead of last year’s origination pace (note 1).

As you can see in the table below, Dec. 2008 was substantially ahead of Dec. 2007 in all measures except average loan size and approval rate, which dropped a full 2 points:

  • Number of applications increased by 78%
  • Number of approved loans increased by 43%
  • Dollars originated increased by 29%
  • Average loan size approved declined by $1,000 (9.4%)
  • Overall approval rate was 8.5% last month compared to just over 10% a year ago

Table: Lending Club loan origination results: Dec 2008 vs. Dec 2007

  Dec
2008		 Dec
2007		 Change % Change
Number of loans originated 238 167 + 71 43%
Dollars originated $2.28 mil $1.77 mil + $0.5 mil 29%
Number of loan applications 2,798 1,575 + 1,223 78%
Approval rate 8.5% 10.6% (2.1%) (20%)
Dollar value of all applications $24.2 mil $14.4 mil + $9.8 mil 68%
Average loan size approved $9,600 $10,600 ($1,000) (9.4%)
Average loan size declined $8,600 $9,000 ($400) (0.4%)
Site traffic (unique visitors) 78,000 58,000 20,000 35%

Source: Loan volume from Lending Club, site traffic from Compete, calculations by Online Banking Report, 8 Jan 2009

Here’s the monthly origination chart (in US Dollars) courtesy of LendingClubStats.com who compiled the figures from data provided by Lending Club. 

 image

Source: LendingClubStats.com, 8 Jan 2009

Also, site traffic is up 35% year over year according to Compete. 

image

Source: Compete, 9 Jan 2009

Notes:
1. The number/dollars of loans originated and applied for at Lending Club in Oct. 2008, Nov. 2008, and Dec. 2008 were all higher than the respective months in 2007. 

2. For more info on the market, see our Online Banking Report on P2P Lending.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

New Peer-to-Peer Lender Pertuity Direct Nears Launch

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Loans & Credit, P2P Lending, Pertuity

image Just when it looked like U.S. regulators were about to kill the market for P2P lending, a new entrant is about to launch. Apparently, with the full blessing of government watchdogs.

Pertuity Direct, originally scheduled to launch at our Oct 14 Finovate conference, is about to go live with a new approach to P2P lending. In an off-the-record discussion with founder Kim Muhota and marketing director Lisa Lough yesterday, I learned about their novel approach to make the service appeal to borrowers, investors, AND regulators. It could be the model for the industry going forward.

While I’ll reserve judgement until I can actually use the service (it’s still in private testing), I’m impressed with the company’s thinking and encouraged that it appears to have successfully navigated the regulatory minefield and will make it off the ground in early 2009.

We’ll cover it in more detail at launch.  

Note: For more info on the market, see our Online Banking Report on P2P Lending.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook