New article in ‘Investment Executive’ magazine about CommunityLend
A new article about us from the perspective of lenders.
New service turns investors into lenders | Investment Executive
Toronto-based CommunityLend Inc. has launched an online lending service that allows accredited investors to make loans to consumers for profit. And although it offers no brokerage fee to advisors, CommunityLend pitches its services to investors as an alternative investment, comparing the return on consumer credit favourably vs returns on traditional fixed-income.
“This is a new investment class to the average — but reasonably sophisticated — investor,” says Colin Henderson, CommunityLend’s chief technology officer and co-founder.
CommunityLend Introduces Peer-to-Peer Lending to Canada | Press Release
This press release was added to our site today.
CommunityLend Introduces Peer-to-Peer Lending to Canada
Online lending company aims to help borrowers get better rates by cutting out the “middleman” in Canada’s multi billion dollar personal lending market
Toronto, ON - February 17th, 2010: Toronto-based Internet company CommunityLend Inc., recently announced the launch of Canada’s only online peer-to-peer lending system after over two years of regulatory consultation and platform development.
Peer-to-peer (p2p) lending is an international financial services innovation which cuts out the traditional “middlemen” in lending transactions, such as banks and credit card companies, by facilitating the direct matching of borrowers to investors through online loan auctions. Peer-to-peer lending has been called “game-changing” by financial industry analyst Javelin Research[1] and has also been recognized by the Harvard Business Review in their 2009 List of “Breakout Ideas”.[2].
“Consumer lending has been a major driver of the Canadian banking industry’s profitability for many years" noted Michael Garrity, Co-Founder and CEO of CommunityLend Inc, “and yet has been virtually unavailable as a direct investment opportunity for private investors. Peer-to-peer lending removes the structural obstacles which prevent private investors from investing directly in consumer loans and provides the potential for a better deal for both sides.”
“By allowing borrowers the ability to connect directly with lenders through a safe and secure online lending system,” said Garrity, “we expect borrowers to get better rates for their loans through price competition while also providing eligible Canadian investors, starting with Accredited Investors, direct access to Canada’s consumer credit market as an investment category. It’s a win for everyone concerned.”
According to Garrity, the CommunityLend online peer-to-peer lending system aims to satisfy three essential market needs in Canada:
1. Helping Canadian borrowers to get better rates on loans by creating real competition for their loan requests.
2. Giving Canadian investors (starting with Accredited Investors) the opportunity to directly participate in Canada’s large consumer credit market as an investment category.
3. Providing real communities the opportunity to positively influence the lending process for their members by highlighting their collective needs and responsibility.
As of today, the CommunityLend online peer-to-peer lending service is available in the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec at www.communitylend.com. The company intends to add more provinces in the future.
About CommunityLend Inc
CommunityLend Inc. is Canada’s only peer to peer lending service, a financial services innovation which allows borrowers to cut out banks and credit card companies and to connect directly with lenders through open online loan auctions. Called “game changing” by financial industry analysts[3], this new lending model permits direct investment by eligible investors in the personal lending market, previously largely the preserve of financial institutions. CommunityLend Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of CommunityLend Holdings Inc., a Canadian corporation based in Toronto, ON. CommunityLend Inc. is registered as a Portfolio Manager and an Exempt Market Dealer in the provinces of Ontario, and Quebec.
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For more information please contact Colin Henderson at colin@communitylend.com.
1
[1] Javelin Research 2008, http://www.javelinstrategy.com/2008/01/07/at-last-a-bank-of-your-own/
[2] HBR 2009 http://hbr.harvardbusiness.org/web/2009/hbr-list/forget-citibank-borrow-from-bob
[3] http://www.javelinstrategy.com/2008/01/07/at-last-a-bank-of-your-own/
A Special Introductory Offer for Borrowers and Lenders until April 30, 2010
Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu is noted to have once said that “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”.
Our journey here at CommunityLend is to change the rules of Canada’s lending industry by connecting borrowers looking for better rates to lenders looking to invest directly in consumer loans.
To get this journey started we need Canadian borrowers and lenders to take the first step and to join us. So, we have decided to make the first step of joining us even easier.
To help get Peer-to-Peer lending in Canada off to the right start, we are announcing that from now until April 30th, 2010, Communitylend will be waiving* fees for both Lenders and Borrowers as a special introductory offer for early participants. Specifically:
- For Borrowers – we will rebate back our Borrower Adminstration Fee for any Borrower loan that closes between today and April 30th, 2010. (full details below)
- For Lenders: we will rebate back our Lender Annual Adminstration Fee for all closed Loans in which a Lender participates before April 30th, 2010 for a subsequent period of 6 months from the closing date of each Loan. (full details below)
We have all waited long enough to have a Peer to Peer lending option in Canada, so let’s get started! If you are a borrower looking for a better interest rate for an unsecured loan or an Accredited Investor looking for the opportunity to participate directly in the consumer lending market, CommunityLend is here for you.
Just follow this link to get started now!
- The CommunityLend Team
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*Terms and Conditions for Fee Rebate Offer:
Borrower Offer:
All registered Borrowers at CommunityLend whose loan request closes at any time before midnight on April 30th, 2010 will be rebated the full amount they paid for their Borrower Adminstration Fee.
Terms and Conditions:
- This Offer applies to all existing and new Borrowers who have a loan request that closes successfully before midnight (Eastern Daylight Savings Time) on April 30, 2010.
- Only loans closed AND disbursed in approved loans within the offer period will be eligible.
- Borrower Adminstration Fee rebates will be credited to eligible Borrower accounts within 15 days of a loan request closing in a successful loan.
- CommunityLend reserves the right to amend, withdraw or extend any or all elements of this promotion at any time, without prior notice.
- This offer cannot be combined with any other offer, promotion, discount or scheme offered by CommunityLend or any other body.
Lender Offer:
CommunityLend will rebate our Lender Annual Adminstration Fee to any registered lenders for all closed Loans in which a Lender participates before midnight April 30th, 2010 for a subsequent period of 6 months from the closing date of each Loan.
Terms and Conditions:
- This Offer applies to all existing and new Lenders who make successful Loans in the CommunityLend online lending system before midnight April 30, 2010.
- Only funds credited AND disbursed in approved loans within the offer period will be eligible.
- Funds loaned may include existing funds in a Lender’s holding account with CommunityLend, on offer, in processing, or received as repayments from existing loans.
- CommunityLend will continue to collect Lender Annual Adminstration Fee as outlined in the Lender Registration Agreement and then will rebate the lenders account on a monthly basis for a period of 6 months for each loan applicable under this program.
- Example: A Lender participates in two Loans which close on February 15, 2010 for $1,000 each and one loan which closes on March 15, 2010 for $500. The Lender will be rebated their relevant Lender Annual Adminstration Fee for the first two loans on a monthly basis for 6 full months from February 15, 2010 and for the second loan on a monthly basis for 6 full months from March 15, 2010.
- Lender Annual Adminstration Fee rebates will be credited to eligible Lender accounts within 15 days of the Lender Fee being withdrawn from the Lender account every month.
- CommunityLend reserves the right to amend, withdraw or extend any or all elements of this promotion at any time, without prior notice.
- This offer cannot be combined with any other offer, promotion, discount or scheme offered by CommunityLend or any other body.
An Alternative To Banks | The Mark
We were featured in an article in The Mark today.
An Alternative To Banks | The Mark
A new startup is poised to shake up the Canadian credit industry with the creation of an online marketplace to facilitate peer-to-peer lending. Offering an alternative to traditional bank loans, CommunityLend.com launches on the heels of a credit crunch that has made the public increasingly leery of banking institutions
Welcome Quebec!
Welcome Quebec!
Starting today, Lenders and Borrowers from Quebec can now participate in the CommunityLend online lending system. In honour of this momentous occasion, the team here at Communitylend have assembled a few fun facts on this great Canadian province:
About Quebec – Did you know?
- Quebec is Canada’s largest province by land mass and it’s second largest by Population with 7.5 million residents
- Quebec’s forest covers more than 750,000 km2, which is the size of Sweden and Norway together. It represents 20% of the Canadian forests and 2% of the world’s forests.
- The Château Frontenac in Quebec City is the most photographed hotel in the world.
- In Montréal that you can see the highest inclined tower in the world : the Olympic Stadium tower.
- Quebec contains more than 3% of the world’s fresh water reserves.
- That Quebec’s electric wiring network is one of the longest of the North American continent? It is made of more than 30,000 kilometres of high-voltage cables, to which is added 100,000 kilometres of supply wires that go all the way to the consumers. If we were to put all the wires end to end, they could go three times around the Earth at the Equator.
Welcome!
- The CommunityLend Team
Sprouter article on CommunityLend
Erin @ Sprouter writes a piece on the journey for CommunityLend to date.
The importance of perseverance as an entrepreneur: the CommunityLend story | Sprouter
Most entrepreneurs know that nothing happens in the time frame you set out when you’re developing your business. No one knows this better than Michael Garrity, entrepreneur and co-founder of CommunityLend, a recently-launched peer-to-peer lending service, the first of its kind in Canada (p2p lending companies such as Prosper and Zopa operate in Britain and the U.S.).
CommunityLend featured in new YongeStreet Canadian online magazine
Today we are featured in the new YongeStreet Canadian online magazine. Carla Lucchetta, a Toronto based writer and TV producer has done a nice write up and we are proud to be one of the features during just their 2nd week of operation.
Peer to peer lending: taking the bank out of banking | YongeStreet
Peer to peer lending (sometimes called social lending) is new to Canada, a fairly conservative country financially speaking, though organizations like Prosper in the US and Zopa in the UK have been running for a number of years now. Borrowers who possess good credit file their information online, requesting from $1,000 to $25,000, with the opportunity to outline why they are asking for funds; home renovation, children’s tuition, or small business seed money. The loan request is then put up for auction to accredited lenders, whether an individual, a group of individuals or an organization who have demonstrated their financial clout.
CommunityLend and the Portfolio Plus solution from SIT
We needed a technology solution that allowed the marriage of a loan management system with a modern web application. The result was an integration of our Ruby on Rails application with the industry strength Portfolio Plus application from Strategic Information Technology, and the early results indicate we made the right decision.
CommunityLend Goes Live with Peer to Peer (P2P) Lending
“We know its been a lot of work to pioneer this type of lending in Canada and we’d like to congratulate CommunityLend for enduring the numerous regulatory hurdles to make this happen,” said G. Robert Leeming, President of SIT. “We’re also proud that they’re the first customer to employ our Open Banking Interface in a production environment.”
Canada has waited long enough to have access to a peer-to-peer lending system. As of today, that wait is over.
It is with great pride that we announce that the CommunityLend online peer to peer lending service is launching in Ontario today and we welcome you to join us.
The CommunityLend online peer-to-peer lending system aims to satisfy three essential market needs in Canada:
- Helping Canadian borrowers get better rates for their loans through a competitive and empowering process for borrowing money.
- Providing eligible Canadian investors, starting with Accredited Investors, direct access to Canada’s lucrative consumer credit market as an investment category.
- Providing local communities the opportunity to positively influence the lending process for their members by highlighting their collective needs and responsibility.
It’s been a long road for us to get here as my colleague, Colin Henderson has noted in an earlier post, but that long road has made our launch just that much more exciting for our team as we begin the process of build this new market category of Peer to Peer Lending in Canada.
Just in case you missed it, we recently made a number of announcements leading up to our market launch today regarding some new team members and the addition of a new investor and partner for CommunityLend. This is an exciting time for CommunityLend and we are keen to have you join us.
To set expectations properly, we would like to update you on four relevant information points related to the CommunityLend market launch today.
- We are accepting only Borrowers and Lenders resident in the province of Ontario. While it is our full intent to offer a national peer-to-peer lending service over time and to ensure that every region of our great country can have the opportunity to participate in this new lending model, we are restricting participation to start with to only Ontario residents. If this doesn’t apply to you right now, fear not, in the coming months, we intend to add new provinces and territories and will notify you accordingly.
- We are focused only on “good quality” borrowers. We define a “good quality borrower” as someone with a good to strong credit history, reflected in their credit data held by our credit bureau partner and who is in the current financial position to be qualified for a 3 year term loan on CommunityLend. In credit bureau terms, this translates to a credit score of 657 or higher (out of 1000) and a total debt service level (the amount you pay versus the amount you make) not exceeding 30% of your income. The reason for these strict credit standards relates directly to our commitment to creating the best environment possible conducive to a strong and consistent financial return for our lenders.
- We are focused only on lenders in the province of Ontario who qualify as “Accredited Investors” under securities regulations in Ontario. You are an accredited investor if you fit within one or more of the categories listed here. Accredited investors at Communitylend can be both individual and institutional lenders. Over time, we want to make the assets of peer-to-peer lending available more widely to non-accredited investors and will be exploring methods to do so within our regulatory framework.
- These are early days for Peer to Peer Lending and we look forward to building this market category together. We have worked hard over the last 2 years to create a service which we believe meets the core market requirements for operating a robust peer-to-peer lending system in Canada while also operating in a compliant way with Canadian regulations. These early days around our launch will be our opportunity to get committed and qualifying users into and using the system to get valuable market feedback. This will likely mean that not every loan request will get filled and not every lender will get to build a loan portfolio as quickly as they would like. We expect these situations to be short term in nature and we know that by working together, we can make peer to peer lending a strong viable alternative to traditional bank lending.
Starting today, if you are a borrower looking for a better interest rate for an unsecured loan, an Accredited Investor looking for the opportunity to participate directly in the consumer lending market or a community who believes you can do better by working together, there is an alternative now available here at CommunityLend.
We invite you to join us in helping to change the rules of lending in Canada. Just follow this link to get started now!
- Michael Garrity, CEO and Co-Founder
