Comments on: Canadian Government remain concerned about availability of consumer lending

By: Colin

Colin — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 19:44:43 +0000

Thanks for the comments Rob. Rest assured we are doing all we can as we move towards our launch.

By: Rob

Rob — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 18:48:57 +0000

@Colin,

Do you have any evidence that the regulatory process will eventually conclude in your favour?

The Government of Canada is essentially immortal (if it goes, we have much bigger problems than CL), but your investors patience probably isn’t. To prevent social lending, one strategy might be to make the regulatory process so onerous that nobody can afford to do it. They never have to deny permission, per se… shucks… you just couldn’t last long enough to make it happen.

[precedent: In the case of Canadian soldiers who were exposed to Agent Orange in Gagetown, the government waited 30+ years to acknowledge responsibilty. Many people who were owed pensions died in the interim. If you haven't heard about this, google it.]

And there could be public outrage about how CL has been treated, but you’ve barely engaged the public at all…. so nobody cares.

Anyways, I wish you “good luck”, but luck will have nothing to do with; however, I do hope your business ultimately succeeds.

Rob.

By: Colin

Colin — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 08:12:18 +0000

@jason thanks for the comment and question. As you probably know we are going through our regulation process and once approved, expect lots of things.

By: Jason

Jason — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 07:24:03 +0000

Thanks Colin,

I have sent you an email regarding the API thing, maybe my email is lost somewhere in the cyber world.Let me ask again:

Do you have any plan to provide public API like what Prosper has done? I believe P2P lending is a great opportunity for the next few years, I wish to make some small tools or do some analysis for members if possible. I think even if CL has a strong developing team, you can not do everything to satisfy all the needs from members.

I found with web2.0, the APIs seems a must: facebook, ebay … you name it.

By: Colin

Colin — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 23:29:20 +0000

@Jason … can’t offer a specific date, but will say we are making progress.

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 23:03:20 +0000

When CL starts?

By: connie

connie — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 18:41:06 +0000

I read in yesterdays Metro that Jim Flaherty met with non-bank instititutions (Desjardins etc) about consumer lending. Were you part of this meeting? Has Mr. Flaherty met or even looked into the P2P lending in Canada?

By: Banking » Blog Archive » The right idea for the times | UncrunchAmerica

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 18:20:26 +0000

[...] Canadian government, and governments in many countries remain concerned about consumer lending. At the same time there is great concern about bank capital reserves, and [...]

By: The right idea for the times | UncrunchAmerica « The Bankwatch

The right idea for the times | UncrunchAmerica « The Bankwatch — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 21:40:17 +0000

[...] a comment » The Canadian government, and governments in many countries remain concerned about consumer lending. At the same time there is great concern about bank capital reserves, and [...]

By: Alan

Alan — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 17:27:08 +0000

The Canadian government can begin by urging banks to pass on the BoC rate cuts to variable rate mortgage holders instead of taking this money from the mortgage holders.

Although the December 9 Bank of Canada overnight rate dropped by 3/4%, my variable rate mortgage only dropped by 1/2%. Typically the variable rate always drops (or rises) by the same amount as the BoC overnight rate.

The Bank of Montreal is taking advantage of the current climate to make a naked cash grab from variable rate mortgage holders.