Welcome British Columbia!
We want to send a big warm welcome to the lovely province of British Columbia which, as of today, is the latest province to be added to the CommunityLend online lending system along with Ontario and Quebec.
As of today, potential borrowers and qualifying lenders from anywhere in the province of British Columbia are free to visit CommunityLend and apply for a loan or set-up a lending account. So whether you live in Vancouver, Vanderhoof or Vernon, you are now invited to join CommunityLend.
In honour of this momentous occasion, we thought we would include some fast facts on our newest operating province (source here).
- British Columbia (B.C.) entered Canadian confederation in 1871 and is Canada’s third most populated province with over 4.4 million people.
- B.C. is Canada’s third largest province by land mass as well, occupying about 10 per cent of Canada’s land surface.
- B.C.’s provincial motto is "splendor without diminishment." which they take quite seriously as more than 14% of British Columbia is “protected” – more than any other province in Canada.
- B.C. is the largest film and television production centre in Canada and the third-largest in North America – after New York and Los Angeles.
We look forward to working with the residents of British Columbia to help them change the rules of lending in their province!
- The CommunityLend Team
CommunityLend Expands its Unique Online Lending System to British Columbia
We have published a new press release today on the launch of our service in British Columbia, Canada.
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New Peer-to-Peer Lending service helps borrowers to get better rates by cutting out the “middleman” in Canada’s multi-billion dollar personal lending market
Toronto, ON – September 1, 2010: Canadian Internet company CommunityLend Inc., today announces that its unique peer-to-peer lending system is now available to eligible borrowers and lenders in the province of British Columbia.
“Given the especially high usage of community-oriented financial institutions like credit unions in British Columbia, we are very excited about being able to now offer our unique peer-to-peer lending system to this province.” said CommunityLend CEO, Michael Garrity.
… …
For more click here:
CommunityLend Welcomes John Philip Green to the Management Team
As John’s experience and success grew, we had always wanted to find a way to bring him back to CommunityLend. It is with great pleasure that we announce today that we are welcoming John back to CommunityLend to formally join our management team here as our new Chief Technology Officer. John’s first day is today and will have his hands full with a number of new planned technology based initiatives we have underway.
We are also announcing today that our current CTO and co-Founder, Colin Henderson, will be formally taking over the role of Chief Operations Officer for the company and maintaining his role on the Board of Directors. Colin is looking forward to working closely with John on technology. marketing and operations related issues.
As you can see from John’s biography below, he brings to CommunityLend significant and relevant experience in technology development, Internet consumer marketing, lead generation and Internet start-up operations.
Welcome back John!
- Michael Garrity and the CommunityLend team
John Philip Green
John Philip Green was most recently Founder & CTO of Savvica, an online social media company focused on international education that operates LearnHub.com & JumboTests.com. Savvica is funded by Educomp Solutions Ltd. (EDSO.BO), India’s largest education company. Previously, John was the Director of Engineering at Affinity Labs, an online communities company. Affinity Labs was funded by the Mayfield Fund and Trinity Ventures and acquired after 14 months by Monster Worldwide (Nasdaq:MNST) for $61MM. John is an advisor to several companies on technology, marketing, and strategy, including TasteKid, a media recommendation system, SmartHippo, a community-driven comparison shopping engine for financial services, and Ampush Media, an online education marketing company. John holds a B.Math (Honours Computer Science) from the University of Waterloo.
CommunityLend Newsletter – August 2010
Marketplace Update for July
With July now behind us we have hit the mid-point of Canada’s long awaited and much coveted summer months. July also marked the 5th month of operation for CommunityLend, Canada’s only peer-to-peer lending system . It was another growth month for us, with an increase in loan activity, some new loan products and some great media coverage.
Here are the key market statistics for our year-to-date to July.
- Loan Demand at the website has now exceeded $3 Million
- Loan Requests Accepted at the website is now at $496,300
- User Membership is now over 1,800
- Our Average Loan Size for Accepted Loans moved up to $7,400 (from $7,000 last month).
- Our Average Offered Interest Rate came down to 16% (from 17% last month)
Who says Canadians aren’t thinking about borrowing and investing in the summertime?
New Product Announcement: Private Auto Loans
CommunityLend is now offering a financing option for buyers of private cars. The private auto industry is a multi-billion dollar industry in Canada that is under-served by traditional financial institutions. Starting this month, CommunityLend will be offering financing to qualifying borrowers interested in purchasing a private vehicle through sites like AutoTrader. Click on the advertisement below for more details.
Taking our Financing Message to the air waves starting this September!
CommunityLend’s CEO, Michael Garrity, will be joining popular radio show, The Finance Hour, as co-host, starting this September. The show airs weekly on Saturdays at 9:00am on CP24 Radio 1050.
The Finance Hour offers practical advice for Canadians on finance related products and services with a specific focus on helping households save their money. Here are some examples of topics that Michael and co-host James Plewak of Strength Finance expect to cover.
• Car Purchases – lease, loan or cash?
• Home Improvement projects – when does it make sense to use a finance option?
• Mortgages – fixed rate or variable rate?
Listen in each week for valuable insight into the world of finance as well as special guests from Canada’s financial services community. We also plan to share content from the show here on our blog. Also check out our new Facebook fan page, and twitter feed.
In the News
We were humbled and honoured recently to see CommunityLend and our CEO included in this media article on the top leaders in financial services within Canada.
Notable and Influential Banking Leaders in Canada | banknerd.ca
Questions on Lending or Borrowing at CommunityLend?
Email us: info@communitylend.com
Call us toll free: 1.888.536.3025 (9:00am – 5:00pm EST)
Canadian line of credit debt increased by 50% since 2007
The Certified General Accountants Association keep track of Canadian household debt. Their latest report looks at Canadians attitude to debt, what they use it for, and how the money was borrowed. It is full of sobering statistics, but this one leapt off the page.
That sharply increasing blue line represents line of credit debt per capita. It is not just increasing it is increasing sharply. The change between the beginning of the credit crisis and now represents a 50% increase.
It is worth noting that the reason banks encourage the shift to lines of credit is often to get better collateral usually over a home. This is encouraged by low rates. The flip side of that coin is that the debt often becomes entrenched and permanent and the statistics bear that out. So even at low interest rates, there will be a lot of interest paid over many years, unless a concentrated effort to pay the debt down is made.
The report notes:
Ironic as it may be, the dynamic of the Canadian households’ use of financing
is one of the few things that did not, at least to the end of 2009, noticeably
adjust to a changing economic reality. The growth in household debt had been
strong during “good times,” showed a remarkable resilience during “challenging
times,” and seems to be set to continue its upward trend as we navigate
“interesting times.”
In other words the statistics suggest that Canadians are following the opposite of the advice that would be expected in times of economic doubt. Again this from the report:
Fewer Canadians report positive changes in their income and wealth. As well, few Canadians realize that negative economic shocks may affect their financial wellbeing.
if you were surveyed today, how might you answer this example question from the CGA survey?
Q.24 Please indicate which of the following statements applies to you…
- I have a clear idea of the amount of personal savings I need
to accumulate in order to assure that my financial situation at
retirement will be adequate- I am wealthier today compared to 3 years ago
- My parents or other individuals provide a substantial financial
and/or in-kind support of my household’s day-to-day living
Post deleted
The post ’A status report on the banking crisis …. ‘ was posted to the CommunityLend blog in error. If you are interested the original post is here, where I actually intended to post it the first time.
A old concept whose time has come again – ‘calculated consumption’
This piece is interesting in how it illustrates new consumer behaviors that are aligned with debt reduction, and purchases that are required versus ‘keeping up with the Joneses’. Examples are used of folks “work-spend treadmill.”
But Will It Make You Happy? | NY Times
“We’re moving from a conspicuous consumption — which is ‘buy without regard’ — to a calculated consumption,” says Marshal Cohen, an analyst at the NPD Group, the retailing research and consulting firm.
Calculated consumption means matching lifestyle, income and spending, rather than what for many has been matching lifestyle with borrowing.
What is particularly interesting is that this approach to financial life is one that will ultimately make people happier.
On the bright side, the practices that consumers have adopted in response to the economic crisis ultimately could — as a raft of new research suggests — make them happier. New studies of consumption and happiness show, for instance, that people are happier when they spend money on experiences instead of material objects, when they relish what they plan to buy long before they buy it, and when they stop trying to outdo the Joneses.
So, getting a loan from CommunityLend to pay off those high interest credit cards might just bring smile to your face!
Notable and Influential Banking Leaders in Canada | banknerd.ca
We were humbled and honoured to see CommunityLend and our CEO included in this piece on leaders in financial services within Canada. Thank you banknerd.ca!
Notable and Influential Banking Leaders in Canada | banknerd.ca
The people that will be mentioned here have reached a level of success through hard work and perseverance. They should be commended if not honored for their work.
CommunityLend joins “The Finance Hour” on CP24 Radio 1050
Michael Garrity is joining The Finance Hour as co-host, weekly at 9am, Saturdays on Radio 1050.
The theme of the show covers all things financial for Canadian consumers. Here are some examples of topics Michael expects to cover with co-host James Plewak of Strength Finance.
- When Money Matters
- Helping your Household better manage your Finances
- Everything you wanted to know about financial products but were afraid to ask
- From Mortgages to Coupons – how to reduce the costs of running your household
As this evolves we expect to share content from the show here on our blog.
CommunityLend monthly newsletter – June 2010
CommunityLend Marketplace Update for June:
The month of June may have slowed us all down physically because of the summer temperatures but it certainly hasn’t slowed down the nation’s interest in peer-to-peer lending. June was another big growth month for the CommunityLend marketplace. Here are some highlights:
- Loan Demand was up 32% to over $2.5 Million
- Loan Requests Accepted was up 40% to almost $400,000.
- User Membership was up 24% to over 1,500
- Our Average Loan Size remained essentially unchanged at over $7,000
- Our Average Offered Interest Rate remained essentially unchanged at 17%
All in all, it was another good month for peer-to-peer lending in Canada, a trend we expect to see continuing throughout the summer.
Product Improvement
We continued to make a number of important product improvements at CommunityLend based on early customer feedback.
- We implemented our multi-stage plan for upgrading the style and design to make it more friendly and focussed for users. Read more about it here.
- We expanded our Risk Classification system for Loan Requests on the website which provides more sub-categories under each risk “tier” (AA, A, B, C) for Lenders to bid against. (See pic)
What’s Next?
Coming in July, CommunityLend will introduce a new Loan product with a 5 Year amortization. These Loans will still have our standard 3 year term but the longer amortization will make monthly payments more affordable for Borrowers and will produce more in interest payments for Lenders over that same time period. More to come in July.
New Partnership
In our continuing quest to provide our Lenders with the best quality borrowers available, we formed a new partnership in June with a leading provider of vendor based finance solutions for industries such as home improvement. In case you missed thisannouncement, we welcomed Strength Finance and its growing community of home improvement vendors into our growing network this last month.
Final Month for our Special Lender Offer
As a reminder, our Lender promotion offer ends July 31st, 2010. Details on this special offer here. It’s a good time to fill some Loan Requests!
In the News
- “My view is that the ‘Old Guard’ should watch out for CommunityLend. They have a nice niche idea that could quickly make an impact on the lending side of their businesses. “ Read more:BankNerd.ca
- “Using MorWEB, brokers can refer clients to CommunityLend to arrange loans from private investors. Phase two, which will further integrate MorWEB and CommunityLend, is scheduled for release later this year.”
Read more: The Mortgage Broker News
Questions on Lending and Borrowing?
9:00am – 5:00pm EST
Toll free: 1.888. 536.3025
Email us: info@communitylend.com
