Apologies that our public site is down. Strangely our beta application on the same server is still working, but we are working to resolve the main site problem.
The new credit card rules – a guide | Globe & Mail
May 25, 2009 · Leave a Comment
The Globe and Mail carry a useful guide to the new credit card rules, and it is useful reading to see just how it will help and also not help the average consumer. The focus appears very much to be on disclosure. Click through for details.
The new credit-card rules: a consumer’s guide | globe and mail
Canada’s credit-card industry would be required to improve disclosure to consumers and change some business practices under new regulations introduced yesterday by the federal government. But how exactly would the changes affect consumers once they come into force?
→ Leave a CommentCategories: credit cards
Tagged: credit cards, government regulation
Thank You Prosper Community, Thank You California!
April 28, 2009 · 2 Comments
Our sincere congratulations to Prosper who re-opened today as noted in this letter from CEO Chris Larsen.
Thank You Prosper Community, Thank You California! | Letter from Chris Larsen
We are pleased to announce that Prosper is now open for business once again after a six month hiatus. At this time we are launching to borrowers nationwide and to individual and institutional lenders in California. We hope to be fully national soon.
→ 2 CommentsCategories: Uncategorized
Tagged: p2p lending, prosper
Review of US p2p lenders and the state of regulatory regime in US
March 25, 2009 · 3 Comments
We have been quiet of late as we work through our own registration with Canadian regulators. In the meantime we actively watch the results of the existing lenders, including Lending Club in the US who are currently the only active and registered p2p lender with the US securities regime, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
This article contains references and photo’s of all the US sites and describes the current state of regulatory approvals in the US. The regulation in Canada is following a similar approach, and we still plan to be the first launched and approved p2p lender in Canada.
Where Credit Still Flows | Wall Street Journal
While still tiny, the social-lending business is gaining serious momentum. The dollar amount of outstanding loans jumped 41.7% in 2008 to $102 million, according to Jim Bruene, founder of Seattle-based NetBanker, which tracks the online finance world. Bruene figures that figure could hit $1 billion by 2013.
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Thinking Eco-Logical to drive sustainability, efficiencies, and cost cutting measures in the data centre
February 7, 2009 · Leave a Comment
I recently had the opportunity to participate in this survey and become part of their advisory board. The efforts of the group in simple terms are to further the cause of sustainable computer systems.
The general theme is one of overwhelming desire to reap the combined benefits of a smaller footprint along with the commensurate costs savings, but a general sense of not being quite sure where to begin.
The key is that there is a desire and a need, and this effort represents one small step towards ever more thoughtful growth in data centres and computer systems.
Colin
Report—IT Sustainability Imperatives in Internet and eCommerce Business
This study shows eCommerce companies are in need of green IT and efficiencies, but are failing to take appropriate action. They are more sensitized to going green in the datacenter, but lack the necessary leadership.
Report it-sustainability1
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Tagged: sustainability eco green
What is equitable for banks’ while they are receiving direct government assistance and during this recession?
January 29, 2009 · Leave a Comment
This was an unprecedented week for the financial services industry in Canada, with a ground breaking $200bn made available to support Canadian Banks.
Budget 2009: Canada’s Economic Action Plan
Action to Improve Access to Financing and Strengthen Canada’s Financial System
Providing up to $200 billion through the Extraordinary Financing Framework to improve access to financing for consumers and allow businesses to obtain the financing they need to invest, grow and create new jobs.
These measures are available only to Schedule A Banks.
Federally regulated financial institutions are eligible to sell into the facility and provincially regulated financial institutions may be eligible on the approval of the Minister of Finance
These extraordinary support measures beg the question of what accountability Canadian taxpayers should expect from the recipients of this assistance.
Two questions to muse collectively:-
1. How will the financial institutions be held accountable for participating in these measures?
- Will the government set lending volume objectives on a quarterly basis?
- Will the government set rate caps by risk criteria, sectorial volume objectives etc?
2. How do we contextualise other recent announcements made by Canadian Banks?
- Personal Line of Credit interest rates increased by 1% or more
- Fees introduced to Line of Credit holders with zero balance
- Decreases in the central bank rate not passed on to reflect consumer and business lending rates
- Increase in credit card rates if late on a payment, and to cover expected higher default rates
- Increased merchant fees for credit card transactions
Bank names are withheld to keep the focus on the broader issue of raising prices while receiving assistance in a time of financial crisis.
Thoughts welcome.
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Tagged: banks, budget
The power of a family budget during these uncertain times
January 26, 2009 · Leave a Comment
A timely and informative article on family budgetting. It makes several excellent points, with the central theme that the entire family is in it together, so a common plan is useful and more likely to succeed when everyone has at least some idea of the general family finances. It makes the point that not every detail on say credit cards needs to be shared, but some general direction on that is very useful to let everyone appreciate the family situation.
Don’t have a family budget? Yikes! | Globe and Mail
“It’s beneficial to consider the family as a financial team,” Mr. Heath says. “All team members should be in on making decisions or being aware of the current status of the financial situation.” Making it a team effort will help cut down on the stress of constantly nagging the kids to turn off the lights or spend less time in the shower.
→ Leave a CommentCategories: credit cards · economy
Tagged: budget
What will business look like in 2009
January 13, 2009 · 2 Comments
Umair Haque maintains a fascinating blog where he follows the direction of business and his perspective on the changes in the economy are interesting to us at CommunityLend. When you are breaking new ground, it is useful to be able to relate to grander changes going on in the world.
A User’s Guide to 21st Century Economics
Tomorrow will not be like yesterday. This is no mere recession tectonic global shift in savings, consumption, and investment. Today’s macropocalypse is a rupture in the global economic fabric – and the next half-decade will be spent reweaving it. It is not a temporary departure from business as usual, an illness – it is a structural transformation, a lasting change
These are powerful statements. He goes on to summarise a few of the posts from 2008 where he used certain market leaders as examples to point out the difference between old and new.
Tomorrow’s market leaders have new DNA. We’ve spent the last year identifying next-generation leaders – from the Obama campaign, to Threadless, to Zara – and learning from them. They look and feel radically different because they were built for 21st century economics, not 20th century economics.
The points being made here are fundamental and it is hard to disagree with them. The role of marketing is exposed as fulfilling what he describes as consumer addiction by using Madison Avenue tactics to push products. Whereas the role of marketing in 2009 is about producing value with that value being defined as the value felt by the customer. There are no more consumers – there are real people seeking value.
The role of corporations in this new world is one of innovation – innovation where companies will offer “higher level innovation” which provides that real value. What is the role of innovation in a world where greater investment will flow to reinventing moribund industries?
In the 20th century, innovation was about processes, products, and services: that’s why most boardrooms are still investing in lower-order innovation. At the Lab, we’ve found that higher-order innovation – business model, strategic, and management innovation – is associated with significantly more powerful and durable value creation. Think Apple (reinforcing simple product innovations, like the iPod and iPhone, with disruptive new value chain designs, via iTunes and the Apps Market).
The article might be a bit philosophical, but we are experiencing new times that have not been experienced during the lifetimes of most of us. It is becoming clear this is not a minor correction but rather, a dramatic shift in business and the old axiom of “it is not business as usual” has never been more relevant than now. CommunityLend intends to be part of that shift.
→ 2 CommentsCategories: economy
Canadian Government remain concerned about availability of consumer lending
December 23, 2008 · 11 Comments
The Canadian government continues to pressure banks to ensure they keep consumer lending going. The negative headlines from the US relative to credit certainly flow over into Canada and levels of Canadian consumer confidence.
Canadians voice concerns over access to credit, Flaherty says | Globe and Mail
TORONTO — Finance Minister Jim Flaherty says consumers across the country are worried about access to credit.
“We are hearing across Canada concerns about access to credit,” Mr. Flaherty said Tuesday. “It is a major issue going into 2009.”
The finance minister said in Toronto he will be talking to the country’s major banks and working to ensure there is affordable and accessible lending.
→ 11 CommentsCategories: Canadian Banks · economy
What does it mean for the Canadian economy as government and banks face off
December 18, 2008 · 3 Comments
In a coordinated move the Governor of the Bank of Canada (Carney) and the Federal Finance Minister (Flaherty) have come out using identical wording “It is not clear to me that they need additional capital buffers,” and insist that the banks turn lending back on, particularly for businesses who are having difficult finding access to lending from the Banks.
Flahery warns Banks on lending | Globe and Mail
“It is not clear to me that they need additional capital buffers,” he said of the banks during a meeting with the editorial board of The Globe and Mail. “What is clear to me is that there is unfilled demand for credit for worthy investments, and I’m sure that our banks will see these opportunities in the fullness of time.”
The federal government is buying $75-billion of mortgage securities from banks to help them expand their balance sheets and pledged to backstop their sales of wholesale debt. The central bank is offering billions more through short-term loans to financial institutions hurt by the credit crisis.
Mr. Flaherty made clear he doesn’t think the banks are showing enough gratitude.
and yesterday:
Carney to banks: Lend, don’t hoard | Globe and Mail
TORONTO — Mark Carney is pointing a finger at the country’s big banks for hoarding capital against a rainy day instead of doling out more loans, a choice the Governor of the Bank of Canada says is damaging the economy.
…
Worries about companies’ struggles to get loans emerged as one of the biggest risks to the economy at a meeting between Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and his provincial counterparts yesterday in Saskatoon.
This introduces a dilemna for the Governent that was well stated by the famous economist J.M. Keynes nearly 90 years ago.
The Paradox of Thrift | Economics Professor
Paradox of thrift was revised by English economist John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) in the 1930s, who asserted that thrift is virtuous only up to a point. If an individual increases the proportion of income he saves, his reduced expenditure on goods will lower total demand in the economy.
Simply put, when peoples confidence is unsettled their natural reaction is to batten down the hatches, save, pay off debts and prepare for the future. In turn this reduces the size of the economy and reduces value for everyone. It becomes a vicious spiral. It is interesting that the communication effort to Banks is focussed on helping businesses, presumably because business confidence is a necessary precursor to consumer confidence returning.
GDP is made up of spending by 1. Business, 2. Consumer, and 3. Government plus 4. net exports. The thinnking of the government is that with confidence for 2. being in the ditch, they must do all they can to avert 1. (business) confidence dropping so much.
All this coming at the time when banks consider they need to re-capitalise in order to save for future loan losses including the likes of the Maddoff affair coming out of the woodwork, and they are betting there has to be more to come.
→ 3 CommentsCategories: Canadian Banks · economy
