Zopa Archives - Page 16 of 18

Alumni News– Week of June 20, 2011

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on June 27, 2011
Categories: AlphaClone, billFLO, Bills.com, BrightScope, CashEdge, Continuity Control, Credit Karma, Currensee, Doxo, Dwolla, eWise, Expensify, HelloWallet, Jwaala, Lending Club, Lendio, Mortgagebot, PayNearMe, Prosper, Receivables Exchange, Strands, TradeKing, Voice Commerce, Xero, Zopa

AlphaClone

AlphaClone launched a new feature that measures sentiment. Link

BillFLO

Taulia acquired BillFLO. Link

Bills.com

Bills.com shared money-saving strategies for recent college graduates. Link

BrightScope

BrightScope was highlighted on the Tuscon NBC news channel series, “4 Your Money.” Link

CashEdge

Ally Bank began offering CashEdge’s Popmoney service. Link

Continuity Control

LEVERAGE, the Service Corporation for the League of Southeastern Credit Unions, began offering Continuity Control’s CreditUnion Assistant program. Link

CreditKarma

Credit Karma introduced its Approval Odds service to help avoid being declined for a card. Link

Currensee

Currensee reached $6 billion in trading volume and $12 million under management. Link

doxo

The MakeUseOf blog reviewed doxo’s online filing cabinet. Link

Dwolla

Dwolla CEO commented on the Bitcoin virtual currency debate, exchange, and hysteria. Link
Dwolla’s fees were compared to PayPal’s. Link
Silicon Prairie News discussed Dwolla CEO’s comments on Bitcoin. Link

eWise

eWise Payo’s smartphone app won the Editor’s Award for Consumer Focus at the 2011 Cards International Awards. Link

Expensify

The Dallas News highlighted Expensify. Link
Expensify was listed as one of 25 tools to help you manage spending by cmvlive.com Link

HelloWallet

HelloWallet posted a short video series explaining its wealth-tracking service. Link

Jwaala

KEMBA Financial Credit Union implemented Jwaala’s platform. Link

Lending Club

Lending Club is approaching its financial breakeven point. Link
Reuters commented on Lending Club’s P2P marketplace. Link

Lendio

Lendio helped banks increase business loans by finding qualified borrowers. Link

Mortgagebot

Mortgagebot and Business Solutions extended their Tech Alliance to provide mortgage application solutions at preferred terms. Link

PayNearMe

PayNearMe facilitated 7-Eleven’s partnership with Greyhound for cash transactions. Link

Prosper

Reuters commented on Prosper’s P2P marketplace. Link

Receivables Exchange

The Receivables Exchange won 2011 “Management Team of the Year” at the Stevie Awards. Link

Strands

Strands Personal Finance landed in the 2011 Red Herring Top 100 North America list. Link

TradeKing

TradeKing announced its free webinar series on trading advice beginning July 12th. Link

Voice Commerce

Voice Commerce launched its CashFlows app. Link

Xero

Getapp.com reviewed Xero’s cloud-based software. Link

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Alumni News — Week of June 6, 2011

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on June 13, 2011
Categories: Andera, ChargeSmart, Check Point, Currensee, Doxo, Dwolla, Enloop, Expensify, FreeMonee, FTRANS, GoalMine, Jemstep, mFoundry, Mitek, Monitise, Prosper, Robot Dough, SecondMarket, Silver Tail Systems, Striata, Sybase 365, ThreatMetrix, TradeKing, UBank, Zopa

Andera

Andera launched FortiFI, a new fraud prevention system. Link
Andera CEO Charlie Kroll discussed the release of FortiFI. Link

ChargeSmart

ChargeSmart launched ChargeSmart Direct to provide customers with additional access to support staff. Link
Fox Business News highlighted ChargeSmart and PlasticJungle’s gift card trading service as a way to make savings fun. Link

Check Point Software Technologies

Check Point announced the 2012 version of ZoneAlarm. Link

Currensee

Forex Crunch outlined the benefits of Currensee, describing its profitability as “significantly high”. Link
The Street highlighted Curensee as a startup that “rocks” the financial house. Link

doxo

Chicago Tribune discussed doxo’s step toward a paperless society. Link
TechCrunch & VentureBeat featured the launch of doxo’s mobile app, a mobile digital filing cabinet. Link and Link
Macworld took a closer look at doxo’s new app. Link

Dwolla

Dwolla released Grid, a feature that protects personal user information. Link
The Street highlighted Dwolla as a startup that “rocks” the financial house. Link
The Next Web interviewed Dwolla about its API. Link

Enloop

StartUp Beat profiled Enloop. Link

eWise

eWise raised $14 million in funding. Link

Expensify

CNNMoney named Expensify as one of five best apps for businesses. Link

FreeMonee

CardTrak.com examined FreeMonee’s gift network. Link

Ftrans

Ftrans raised $650,000 in equity financing. Link

GoalMine

GoalMine won The Core Underbanked Innovators Challenge at the 6th Annual Underbanked Financial Services Forum hosted by Core Innovation Capital. Link

Jemstep

Jemstep launched a new version of its service that features many improvements. Link

mFoundry

The Washington Post reported that mFoundry’s mobile deposit service is its most requested feature. Link

Mitek

Mitek Systems was granted 4 more patents for its mobile deposit feature. Link
Bank Technology News discussed Mitek’s new patents. Link

Monitise

Monitise launched its services in India. Link
The Wall Street Journal covered Monitise’s 5-year agreement with Visa. Link
TechCrunch examined Monitise’s recent deal with Visa. Link

Prosper

Prosper raised $17.5 million in funding from investors. Link

RobotDough

The Street highlighted RobotDough as a startup that “rocks” the financial house. Link

SecondMarket

CNBC interviewed Barry Silbert, CEO of SecondMarket, regarding its role in IPOs. Link

Silver Tail Systems

Silver Tail Systems raised $20M in a Series B funding round. Link

Striata

Striata partnered with POCiT to enable bill payments. Link

Sybase

Sybase was named the most successful database software vendor in China. Link

ThreatMetrix

ThreatMetrix collaborated with USA ePay to provide fraud prevention to online retailers. Link

TradeKing

TradeKing partnered with CoolTrade for automatic stock trades. Link

UBank

UBank voiced that it will change the banking industry by using the web and mobile technology. Link

Zopa

BBC’s Radio 2 interviewed Zopa CEO Giles Andrews about P2P lending. Link

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Alumni News — Week of May 23, 2011

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on May 31, 2011
Categories: Aptys Solutions, Backbase, Betterment, Bill.com, Boku, Capital Access Network, Credit Karma, Doxo, Dwolla, edo Interactive, Expensify, Kabbage, Lending Club, LendingKarma, Lendio, Lodo Software, Monitise, Mortgagebot, PayDivvy, PayNearMe, peerTransfer, ProfitStars, Robot Dough, SecondMarket, Smarty Pig, Striata, ThreatMetrix, TILE Financial, TradeKing, Tyfone, Wikinvest, Wonga, Xero, Zecco, Zopa

Aptys Solutions
Aptys Solutions signed with Banker’s Bank, a top check depositor with the Federal Reserve Link

Backbase
Backbase to host webinar on how to use social media in financial services Link

Betterment

Betterment announced a growth of over $10M under management and over 4000 customers in first year Link
Betterment celebrated its first birthday Link

Bill.com
Bill.com is working to improve its mobile offering for small and midsized businesses Link

Boku
Mobile Entertainment explained how Boku will revolutionize pay-by-mobile for digital goods Link

Capital Access Network
CNBC explained how Capital Access Network solves the need to use financial creativity Link

Credit Karma
WiseBread Blog interviewed Credit Karma CEO Link

doxo

doxo’s first fan video was posted online Link
Oregon employees were the first to give its members doxo’s online file cabinet Link
TechFlash highlighted the benefits of using doxo to achieve paperless business Link
2Minute Finance interviewed doxo at FinovateSpring Link

Dwolla

Dwolla was listed by inc Tech as one of three startups you must know from Big Omaha Link
Credit Union Times listed Dwolla as a new P2P service rivaling ‘bank giants’ Link

edo Interactive
MyBankTracker interviewed edo Interactive COO about its Prewards service Link

Expensify
Slate explained how Expensify will help the ‘frequent flier’ Link

Kabbage
Technorati described how Kabbage works with eBay Link

Lending Club

Mint.com’s blog covered what you need to know about Lending Club Link
San Francisco Business Times commented on Lending Club’s strong backing from both investors and lenders Link
San Francisco Times reported that Lending Club stated it is not planning to go public for several years Link

LendingKarma
Entrepreneur featured LendingKarma as a good tool to use when borrowing money from family or friends Link

Lendio
San Francisco Chronicle reported that Lendio offers funding opportunities for new grads Link

Lodo Software
Lodo Software was described as a startup providing jobs in the “Silicon Prairie” region, a.k.a. Omaha Link

Monitise
Monitise released a report predicting that the majority of consumers will use mobile money services within the next three years Link

Mortgagebot
Mortgagebot reached 1000 clients, one of its goals from the beginning Link

PayDivvy
2MinuteFinanced interviewed PayDivvy about its services Link

PayNearMe
BillShrink examined PayNearMe’s cash payment service Link

peerTransfer
Mass High Tech interviewed Iker Marcaide from peerTransfer about becoming an entrepreneur Link

ProfitStars
ProfitStars announced a new version of Margin Maximizer that’s now available as a hosted solution Link

Robot Dough
2MiniuteFinance toured RobotDough’s demo during interview at Finovate Spring Link

SecondMarket

Wall Street Journal stated that SecondMarket helped fuel the tech boom Link
CNBC interviewed SecondMarket for an explanation of the change in trading numbers Link and Link

Smarty Pig
Smarty Pig launched new sharing features, including activity sharing and goal sharing Link

Striata
Striata will host a June 2 webinar for implementing successful ebilling strategies Link

ThreatMetrix
San Francisco Chronicle covered ThreatMetrix’s research around mobile transaction activity Link

TILE Financial
TILE Financial released a Financial Identity Profile to strengthen the connection between advisors and under-30 consumers Link

TradeKing
TradeKing divulged the lineup of its free webinars in June Link

Tyfone
Tyfone won 2010 Asia Pacific Smart Card Association Award for its NFC innovation and implementation Link

Wikinvest
Dow Jones Advisor highlighted Wikinvest as a way to analyze portfolios Link

Wonga

Wonga won 2011 Red Herring Top 100 Europe Award for exceptional accomplishments Link
Wonga won the Media Momentum Awards, a coveted award for digital media companies in Europe Link
Wonga’s Errol Damelin discussed consumer-centric credit Link

Xero

Diversity Limited commented on Xero’s move to the US markets Link
Xero and Keebo teamed up to help you manage and process receipts Link
New Zealand Herald commented on Xero’s surging revenue Link

Zecco

The Wall Street Journal reviewed Zecco’s new Facebook app Link
Zecco launched an app for stock trades & viewing realtime market data on Facebook Link

Zopa
Zopa shows how it helps consumers protect against inflation Link

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Peer-to-Peer Lending Volumes Worldwide

By Jim Bruene Posted on November 12, 2008
Categories: Lending Club, Loans & Credit, Metrics & Market Research, P2P Lending, Prosper, Virgin Money, Zopa

Industry blog, P2P-banking.com recently compiled a list of peer-to-peer loan volumes from around the world. The chart is reprinted by permission below.

These numbers are cumulative, all-time volumes since inception. More than half is from Virgin Money USA which has helped individuals put $370 million in loans together since it began as Circle Lending in 2001.

Because these companies don't all use the same model, I've revised the tables somewhat, excluding:

Facilitators: My definition of peer-to-peer lending excludes Virgin Money and Loanback because they do not serve as matchmakers (note 1). They do play a crucial role in putting a legal framework in place for friends-and-family loans and often end up servicing the loans as well. They are more like PayPal where Prosper/Lending Club are like eBay.
Microfinance markets: I would exclude Kiva as well. It's an awesome platform that allows U.S. citizens to loan money to third-world merchants at zero interest. A powerful tool for philanthropy, yes, but not really peer-to-peer. The same goes for MyC4 and Microplace.

So excluding the above companies, total worldwide originations are $262 million, with two-thirds of that from Prosper.

Here are the market shares of the 8 true P2P lenders that have originated more than $1 million since launch:

Company	US$ (mil)	WW Share
Prosper (US)	$178	68%
Zopa (UK)	$39	15%
Lending Club (US)	$20	8%
Money Auction (Korea)	$7.8	3%
Smava (Germany)	$5.8	2%
Zopa (Italy)	$4.3	2%
Boober (Netherlands)	$3.1	1%
Other	$4.5	2%
Total	$262	100%

Source: P2P-Banking.com, 28 Oct 2008

Note:
1. This does not mean I dislike Virgin Money's business model, just that its loan volume is not comparable to the others on the list.

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

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Zopa to Close U.S. Operation

By Jim Bruene Posted on October 9, 2008
Categories: Lead Generation, Loans & Credit, Zopa

Article updated at 2 PM Pacific with quote from one of Zopa’s partner CUs, Affinity Plus.

Zopa’s U.S. social deposit/lending site will be shuttered, just 10 months after its launch (see previous coverage here). The site, which delivered loan applications and CD customers to six credit union partners, apparently was closed by Zopa. At this point the exact reason is unclear (see update below). Zopa blamed the U.S. credit situation and said it wanted to concentrate its efforts in other markets.

Here’s part of the statement from CEO Doug Dolton that appeared on the Zopa forum earlier today (also here’s the official blog entry at Zopa UK):

The facts are: Due to the extremely difficult consumer credit circumstances in the US, we made the decision to focus our ongoing efforts in the UK, Italy and Japan. We have six credit union partners in the US, and we have been working with them to modify our business model to offer our customers the best possible offerings, given the poor credit conditions in the US.

We’re certainly facing unprecedented economic times worldwide right now, but I am pleased to report that our UK and Italian operations are doing better than ever, and I look forward to continuing to develop those marketplaces. I apologise for any confusion regarding our circumstances.

As of this morning, the Zopa US homepage is unchanged, but you can no longer sign up as a new member and all the Learn More links redirect to USA Federal Credit Union.

Implications
It’s surprising that the company would throw in the towel on the significant investment it made here. However, if Zopa’s CU lending partners had curtailed, or stopped, making loans through the site, something noticed last week by the Prosper Lending Review blog, the whole strategy would no longer be viable (see update below).

But this has nothing to do with what Prosper, Loanio (which launched last week) and hopefully Lending Club (expected be accepting new lenders shortly) are doing with person-to-person lending. Zopa US, unlike Zopa UK, was NOT a P2P lending site, it was a lead-generation site for six credit unions. When those CUs stopped needing loan-leads due to the credit crunch, it took the legs out from under the U.S. division. Even continuing to just take deposits made no sense, since each depositor was required to assist a borrower by gifting a portion of the deposit interest.

We wouldn’t be surprised to see Zopa back in United States in the future as a true P2P lending site, copying the model of its U.K. and Italian divisions. The social aspect of its offering certainly resonated with consumers and industry players as well. The company was one of four Best of Show winners in our April Finovate Startup conference, an award by majority vote from the audience (video here).

For more information, see our Online Banking Report on Person-to-Person Lending. And those attending our Finovate next week will see two companies demo P2P lending.

Update: 2 PM PDT, 9 Oct 2008

As one of the credit unions who were partnered with Zopa, I would like to clarify that we have no credit availability issues and have changed none of our lending practices. This decision was made by Zopa.

— Sarah Mason, SVP, Affinity Plus Credit Union

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Person-to-Person (P2P) Lending Update

By Jim Bruene Posted on September 4, 2008
Categories: Lending Club, Loanio, Loans & Credit, Metrics & Market Research, P2P Lending, Prosper, Zopa

Now that we are well past the mid-point of 2008, it’s a good time to look at where we are with one of the most talked-about online financial subjects of the decade: person-to-person or social lending.

Currently, two U.S. companies are actively originating unsecured, multi-purpose P2P loans (note 1):

Prosper: Through July, the leader in the market is running 10% ahead of its 2007 loan-origination pace. The company has funded $55 million and is on pace to do just under $100 million for the year. Website traffic is up 15% compared to a year ago (see graph below) and through July there have been 13% more loan listings (see previous coverage here, Finovate 2007 Best of Show video here; monthly volume reports here).
Zopa: The company, which isn’t technically person-to-person (the loans are originated by six credit union partners) but definitely has a social aspect to its loan program, has not revealed any numbers, but they list 475 loans on the “browse all borrowers page.” Assuming average loan size of $8000 to $9000, they are doing less than $1 million per month. Zopa is using Google AdWords to pitch “instant approval” with a credit score of 640+ (see screenshot below), an aggressive marketing move, especially combined with the 8.49% APR touted on the landing page (see screenshot below; previous coverage here; FinovateStartup 2008 Best of Show video here).

In addition, three more P2P lenders appear very close to launching or relaunching:

Lending Club: The company, launched in May 2007, has been essentially closed to new business since March as they retooled loans into securities for regulatory reasons. However, the company is scheduled to present at our Oct. 14 Finovate conference, implying that they will be out of their quiet period by then (previous coverage here; Finovate 2007 video here).
Loanio: The startup appears to be very close to launching based on an a Sept. 3rd email sent to its house list announcing the launch “in just a few weeks” and adding in parenthesis (yes, we mean it this time!). The company will likely be the first to offer a co-borrower loan application (previous coverage here; Finovate Startup video here).
Pertuity Direct: The newest competitor in the space is Pertuity Direct which we wrote about last week. Its website claims a Sept. 15 launch, and we look forward to seeing their first public demo at Finovate on Oct. 14.

Finally, several companies are looking to launch P2P services in 2008 or 2009, including Globefunder, Community Lend (Canada) and one we just heard about today, Swap-A-Debt.

Forecast revision
Last December we published our second detailed Online Banking Report on Person-to-Person Lending. In that report, we predicted just under $200 million in originations this year. However, due to the inactive period at Lending Club, the delay in Loanio’s launch, and the more conservative approach by Prosper lenders, we are lowering the 2008 forecast by 25%, with an expected total of $135 to $150 million for the year as follows:

Prosper ($95 to $105 million)
Lending Club ($25 to $30 million)
Zopa ($5 to $10 million)
Loanio ($1 to $5 million)
Pertuity Direct ($1 to $5 million)

P2P lending traffic from Compete (July 2007 through July 2008)

Zopa AdWords ad on “loanio” search
(4 Sep 2008, 1 PM PDT from Seattle IP address)

Landing page (4 Sep 2008, link here)

Notes:
1. Specialists are involved in the student loan piece (GreenNote and Fynanz) along with Virgin Money and Loanback which help with person-to-person loan documentation and servicing.

2. Top-right graphic from April 2008 ABC News segment on Lending Club and person-to-person lending.

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FinovateStartup Best of Show Winners Announced

By Jim Bruene Posted on April 30, 2008
Categories: BancVue, Finovate, Jwaala, Zecco, Zopa

An important part of Finovate Conferences, at least for the winners, is the voting process for best demo. All non-presenting attendees receive a ballot which allows them to rate each demo on a scale of one to seven. At the end of the final demo sessions, the ballots are tallied and the presenters ranked 1 through 40 based on the average score. A majority of attendees complete a ballot so it's a good indicator of the group consensus.

There were dozens of awesome demos to choose from, but the peoples' choice yesterday are shown below (in alphabetic order). Congratulations!

First ROI (BancVue) Jwaala

Zecco Zopa

Videos of all the demos will be available soon at the FinovateStartup website.

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Prosper, Lending Club Traffic Up 100,000 in February

By Jim Bruene Posted on March 25, 2008
Categories: Lending Club, Market Research & Metrics, P2P Lending, Prosper, Zopa

Looking at February's Compete data, estimated traffic (see comment 3) at the three major U.S. person-to-person lenders grew by approximately 100,000 unique users compared to January, a 16% gain. Prosper still dominates the category with nearly 10 times as many unique visitors as its nearest rival, Lending Club.

Update: In terms of funded loans, Prosper had double the volume of Lending Club in February: $6.0 million vs. $2.9 million. In January, the volume was $7.2 million vs. $2.8 million.

Lender	Launch	Feb. 2008	Jan. 2008	Mo. Growth	% Growth	Feb. 2007
Prosper	Feb '06	650,000	570,000	+80,000	14%	650,000
Lending Club	May '07	70,000	50,000	+20,000	40%	*
Zopa.com	Dec '07	16,000	14,000	+2,000	14%	*
Total		740,000	630,000	+100,000	16%	650,000

Source: Compete.com, estimated unique site visitors during Feb. 2008 *Not launched

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Zopa Credit Union Partners Give it Top Billing

By Jim Bruene Posted on December 19, 2007
Categories: Credit Unions, Loans & Credit, P2P Lending, Zopa

In researching our latest report on P2P lending, we visited the websites of Zopa's six credit union partners to see how they were promoting, and explaining, the relatively complicated new product. Overall, they gave Zopa surprising prominence. Five of the six mention it on their homepages, with three of those running large banners, usually in rotation with other offers (see list below as observed on Dec. 6). USA Federal Credit Union is the lone holdout, with no mention of Zopa on its website so far.

Addison Avenue FCU ==> Square ad on right side of hompage

Affinity Plus FCU ==> Banner on homepage

First Tech CU ===> Two places on homepage, banner in the middle rotating with
four offers and square box on right (see screenshot below)

FORUM CU ===> Small graphic and link on bottom of homepage

Provident CU ==> Banner on homepage rotating with four offers

USA Federal CU ==> Not mentioned on website

Analysis
I understand why the credit unions are featuring their Zopa relationship. It's new, it's different, it's exciting and the helping-others message fits right in with the holiday spirit. However, for the most part, the program is woefully under-explained when clicking through the banners. I have to believe the most common member reaction to seeing the Zopa product info is, "Huh?"

It must lead to some interesting conversations on the phone and in the branch. Some of which may result in sales, so it's not all bad. But I don't think the ultimate purpose of partnering with Zopa is to confuse members to the extent that they call. There are easier ways to do that.

Examples
First Tech CU has two images on its homepage, both emphasizing Zopa's core message of helping. And the educational aspect is helpful (see screenshot below).

Addison Avenue CU takes a light-hearted approach on its homepage ad, saying:

Introducing Zopa (And no, it isn't a new energy drink)

And Addison Avenue does the best job explaining the service, although I still think it raises more questions than it answers.

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New Online Banking Report Published: Person-to-Person Lending 2.0

By Jim Bruene Posted on December 18, 2007
Categories: Lending Club, Loans & Credit, Online Banking Report, P2P Lending, Prosper, Virgin Money, Zopa

For much of the past four or five weeks I've been researching and testing person-to-person lending sites. I've become a lender and have gone through the borrowing process at all three major U.S. P2P lending exchanges: Prosper, Zopa, and Lending Club. Plus I set up friends and family with loans at Virgin Money USA and LoanBack.

It was all part of the research process for the latest Online Banking Report entitled, Person-to-Person Lending 2.0: Disruptive service or market niche? That report is now available at our main website (here).*

I had originally intended on publishing it in early December. But as I was trying to wrap things up, Zopa launched its new U.S unit. So I stopped the presses and added an analysis of its unique model. Then as I was finishing that, Lending Club made a significant change last week, becoming a national lender instead of state-sanctioned one. That too is now in the report.

Here's a summary of the major fourth quarter activity in the person-to-person lending sector:

Oct. 2: Prosper overhauled a number of its lending tools, which were announced at our FINOVATE conference Oct. 2 (video here)
Oct. 6: Virgin Money (formerly CircleLending) launched its revamped friends-and-family service with a splashy debut in Boston with Virgin founder Richard Branson leading the parade (coverage here)
Dec. 3: Zopa launched its U.S. version, an entirely new way of looking at the P2P space (coverage here)
Dec. 13: Lending Club went national in a unique partnership with WebBank

________________________________________________

*Subscribers may download the report free of charge.
Others may purchase it as an individual report.

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How Zopa Operates Nationwide Through Just Six Credit Union Partners

By Jim Bruene Posted on December 7, 2007
Categories: Credit Unions, P2P Lending, Zopa

One of the first questions that arose when Zopa began facilitating loans and deposits for six U.S. credit unions earlier this week was, "What about (CU) field of membership requirements?" (see coverage here). It turns out that four of the six credit unions working with Zopa offer membership to anyone in the United States as long as the prospective member joins one of the supported organizations. And Zopa handles that hurdle during the signup process for its marketplace.

For example, when I purchased a Zopa CD earlier this week, I was given the choice of joining either First Tech Credit Union, which offers membership to anyone in my state (Washington) or Addison Avenue Credit Union, which anyone can join provided they pay $5/yr to join the Financial Fitness Association. And to make the process simpler, Zopa covers the first year of association dues (see screenshot below).

Bank Deals blog dug out the membership requirements of the six Zopa partner credit unions (here). Here are the four that offer membership through one or more organizations:

Addison Avenue FCU ==> Financial Fitness Association (cost = $5/yr)
Affinity Plus FCU ==> Affinity Plus Foundation ($25 one-time)
Provident CU ==> Sierra Club ($25/yr), American Cancer Society and others
USA Federal CU ==> Prime Meridian Association ($10)

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Zopa Launches U.S. Loan Marketplace Monday Night

By Jim Bruene Posted on December 4, 2007
Categories: Loans & Credit, P2P Lending, Zopa

Just two days after its semi-public beta, Zopa US opened for business late yesterday. The announcement was in the Zopa US blog (here) and emailed to its house list this morning. See Sunday's NetBanker post (here) for our initial impression of the service.

Below is a screenshot from Day 1, forever memorializing Zopa employee Scott, as the first (and so far, only) Zopa borrower. And since all Zopa lenders are required to help at least one borrower, Scott's payments on his $1,000 9.9% loan have been covered for the first year by the company's first 13 CD depositors.

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