Zopa UK – a bond market for consumers
Dave Birch writes a UK blog on money and payments. This post is on a talk with Giles Andrews of Zopa, a P2P lender in Britain who are now targeting £75 million in loans this year. Well done Zopa!
[Dave Birch] I went over to the FS Club to hear Forum friend Giles Andrews of Zopa give an update on their progress. He explained that one way of thinking about Zopa is as a bond market for consumers, but one that allows people to get a social return as well as a financial one. What an interesting description. And it was an interesting meeting.
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What I found particularly interesting was the relationship between Zopa and retail banks. In an odd way, the credit crunch came along at the right time for Zopa. Their lending went from £15 million in 2008 to £35 million in 2009 to £75 million this year. It seems to me that as public trust in banks collapsed (along with the interest rates) so more and more people turned to Zopa.
Casper Wong joins CommunityLend
We welcome Casper Wong to CommunityLend as we continue our expansion of the business model.
Casper joins us after a stint with EasyHome.ca. He brings significant experience and expertise in finance. He was with BMO Capital Markets having worked on Mergers and Acquisitions at BM. At EasyHome he was Director eBusiness & Business Development. EasyHome which is Canada’s largest publicly traded merchandise leasing company with 243 store locations and annual revenues in excess of $170MM, incorporated EasyFinancial where Casper lead a team of 20 employees that doubled loan book revenue in national lending team within 6 months. He was also responsible for sourcing, implementation, and negotiation of partnerships. He organized and set up their credit, adjudication and customer service area as the company expanded, and these backgrounds sets him up nicely for the next phases of CommunityLend.
These are the strengths that are essential to help drive CommunityLend with our latest expansion plans that we will be sharing very soon.
More to come on that ….
Paul Sehr Joins CommunityLend
Today we welcome Paul Sehr as our new Director of Engineering.
Paul adds significant horsepower to our innovation engine. He has worked on and led many unique projects since graduating from one of Canada’s top computer engineering faculties, ECE at UoT. For 3 years he’s worn the entrepreneur’s hat as Partner & CTO of MomentVille, an online wedding website and planning service with hundreds of thousands of monthly users.
More recently, Paul was a consultant at Form & Method, Toronto’s elite shop for cutting-edge web & mobile development work and our longtime development partner. Paul took our account and is responsible for much of its significant improvement over the last few months.
CommunityLend is enjoying an exciting Fall. Expect an accelerating stream of product updates from Paul & I in support of our CEO‘s audacious business goals.
If you are an exceptional engineer and want to work with one of the strongest start-up teams in Canada, please get referred to Paul or I through someone in our network.
Postscript: We can’t say enough good things about Form & Method: they provided an ideal platform to build our technology and our business. Contact Mike Ferrier if you have a challenging project and a decent budget–tell him that John sent you with an embarrassingly effusive recommendation.
CommunityLend Newsletter – October 2010
CommunityLend Marketplace Update for September:
Fall is now fully upon us here in Canada, with the leaves turning and cooler evenings. This change of seasons also signals that we are heading into some of our most expensive months of the year, with the holiday season and travel plans.
This year, with the interest rate uncertainty and economic instability, we at CommunityLend, strongly support the direction suggested by the Bank of Canada and Certified General Accountants Association for Canadians to start getting their debt consolidated and reduced, following significant growth during and since the recession.
This suggests a return to fixed rate and fixed term products to amortize the debt. These products are the core of what CommunityLend offers and we believe, the most responsible type of lending. Feel free to help us spread the word.
We had another strong growth month in September for Canada’s online peer to peer lending service.
Here are the key market statistics for our year to date to September 30th.
- Loan Demand at www.communitylend.com was up another $500,000 to over $4 Million.
- Loan Requests Accepted and available for investment exceeded $655,000.
- User Membership is now over 2,150.
- Our Average Loan Size for Accepted Loans moved down slightly to $7,421 (from $7,500 last month).
- And, our Average Offered Interest Rate remained the same at about 16%
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Major Technology Upgrade at CommunityLend: Speed and a Next Feature Upgrade
We made a major change to our technology this week but a silent one. While this was a major platform technology upgrade there were no new features, but the whole system is noticeably faster. This puts us in good position for our next feature upgrade which is very significant and will make CommunityLend a whole lot easier for people in several ways … stay tuned!
Tips on Protection from Identity Theft and Other Relevant Radio Show Topics
As we’ve noted before, CommunityLend’s CEO, Michael Garrity, has joined popular radio show The Finance Hour as co-host Saturday 9am EST on CP24 Radio 1050.
If you wanted to catch up with shows after the fact, you can now listen in to each show on The Finance Hour website. Here are a few recent shows: Previous shows here
Show 1: What is a Credit Score and why does it matter?
Show 2: Mortgage Choices and What to Do When You Don’t Fit a Bank’s Mold?
Show 3: Issues and Considerations for Home Improvement Finance?
Show 4: Identity Fraud and What Can You Do About It?
Questions on Lending and Borrowing at CommunityLend?
Have Questions?
Contact us anytime at Or call us toll free: 1.888.536.3025 (9:00am – 5:00pm EST)
Major technology upgrade @communitylend with faster platform for next feature upgrade
After a few months of activity the technology system starts to tell us things that need to be tuned up and we were starting to note some slowness. One of the changes made this week was to migrate from Mongrel to Passenger web server. We think there is a noticeable difference in the speed for web pages and we hope you do too. According to Wikipedia, “From 2008 onwards, the Passenger web server replaced Mongrel as the most used web server”.
While this is a major platform technology upgrade to @CommunityLend there are no new features, but the whole system is noticeably faster. This puts us in good position for our next feature upgrade which is very significant and will make CommunityLend a whole lot easier for people in several ways … stay tuned!
The psychology of minimum payment on credit cards
An interesting article on the psychology of minimum payments and why they are bad for people, and good for credit card companies. In this example the card would take 14 years to repay at minimum payment.
He speaks about the minimum payment being an anchor .. something that once made allows the customer to breathe and move on to other things.
Credit card minimums: Why you can’t resist | Globe and Mail
Suppose that I don’t have enough money on hand to pay off the full $1,676 owing on my credit card. It’s hard to decide exactly how much to pay. The $10 minimum payment acts as an "anchor". Just like a real-world anchor keeps a boat in one place, psychological anchors stop people from straying. People’s actual payments end up closer to $10 than they would have been without the suggestion of a $10 minimum payment.
By making the minimum payment, it will take 73 years to repay this credit card | new Credit Card rules in Canada
At CommunityLend we believe in responsible borrowing. That may seem like an obvious statement, but the simple reality is that Bank borrowing products are strongly aligned towards being good for banks and bad for people. It is too easy to get caught in the debt trap, and the concerns of the Governor of the Bank of Canada are directed at the fact Canadian consumer debt has risen significantly since the credit crisis. There is a general sense of something which has yet to come home to roost.
This fact will come home to many Canadians this month. Those who choose to keep balances on credit cards (approx 40% of Canadians) and pay the minimum balance will see the result in a new item on their card statement beginning September. The new item will display the number of years that it will take to repay the balance by making the minimum payment. I have seen one example so far and the number of years was 73 years to repay the balance by making the minimum payment.
Back the point of responsible borrowing, we believe a return to ‘70’s style amortized loans with fixed rates and common sense loan purpose is one way to get there. We see a lot of credit reports, and one thing that leaps out is the frequency of R credit (revolving) and the infrequency of I credit (installment).
What are the number of years to repay on your credit card statement? Please share in the comments. What do you think responsible borrowing means?
Consumer debt, slow U.S. growth worry Carney
“The fact is with, exceptionally low rates, Canadians have seen fit to borrow,” Mr. Carney said. “We are concerned about the level of household borrowing in Canada.”
Canadian households may also be coming to terms with their debt, based on a surprise drop in retail sales in July.
Canada’s homeownership costs continue to climb | RBC Economics
The latest RBC report on homeownership costs indicates a drop in affordability due to increased home prices and interest rates.
Canada’s homeownership costs continue to climb despite slowing resale activity: RBC Economics
Homeownership costs in the second quarter rose across Canada for the fourth consecutive time despite the recent slowing in resale market activity, according to the latest housing report released today by RBC Economics Research.
“Higher mortgage rates in tandem with a further appreciation in home prices boosted the monthly costs associated with carrying a mortgage on a typical home,” said Robert Hogue, senior economist, RBC. “This extended the deteriorating trend in affordability since the middle of last year; however, affordability levels in Canada generally remain within a safe range.”
CommunityLend Newsletter – September 2010
CommunityLend Marketplace Update for September:
Well it’s September again, time to shake the beach sand out of our hair, get the kids back to school, and get back on track for managing the finances of the household. For CommunityLend this will be our first fall season of supporting Canadians for their borrowing and investing choices and we are eager to get started. In this newsletter, we look forward to sharing with you our August marketplace statistics, some exciting news about our geographic and team expansion and also about a new radio show we are part of. Let’s get started.
Here are the key market statistics for our year-to-date to August.
• Loan Demand at www.communitylend.com has now exceeded $3.6 Million.
• Loan Requests accepted have now exceeded $615,000.
• User Membership is now over 2,000.
• Our Average Loan Size for accepted Loans moved up slightly to $7,500 (from $7,400 last month).
• And, our Average Offered Interest Rate came down a bit more to 15.75% (from 16% last month)
We’re Expanding – both in staff and provinces
A New CTO for CommunityLend: In mid-September we also announced that we were welcoming local tech guru John Philip Green to CommunityLend to formally join our management team here as our new Chief Technology Officer.
Whether you live in Vancouver, Vanderhoof or Vernon: In early September we announced that we are now available to eligible borrowers and lenders in the province of British Columbia. Potential borrowers and qualifying lenders from anywhere in the province of British Columbia are now free to visit CommunityLend and apply for a loan or set-up a lending account. So wherever you live in B.C. you are now invited to join CommunityLend.
A Special Reminder to Our Individual Lenders
If you’ve been active on the system in the last couple of weeks you have probably noticed that the pace of Loan Requests being filled has increased. This is a direct result of increased activity from our institutional lenders and we expect this pace to increase even more in the coming months with new institutional lenders joining. Now, we don’t want any of our individual lenders to miss out on participating in Loan Requests, so we want to remind you that the timeliest way of ensuring that you get into Loan Requests is to build a Standing Bid which automates your bidding for you. For more information on Standing Bids, click here or call us at 1.888.536.3025.
Other General Reminders:
Radio Show The Finance Hour starts this Saturday at 9am CP24 Radio 1050
CommunityLend’s CEO, Michael Garrity, will be joining popular radio show The Finance Hour as co-host, starting this Saturday, September 18th at 9am EST on CP24 Radio 1050. Listen in each week as Michael and James, as well as special guests, tackle the big financial choices facing most households. We will also ensure that a recording of each show is also available on The Finance Hour website each week in case you miss it.
Private Auto Loans Now Available
CommunityLend is now offering a unique and much needed finance option for buyers of private cars from online classified sites like AutoTrader. To get started right now, click here.
In the News
CommunityLend Expands Unique Lending System to BC | banknerd.ca
Peer to Peer Lending Innovator, CommunityLend Gets New CTO | Yonge Street
John Philip Green Joins Communitylend | StartupNorth
Questions on Lending and Borrowing at CommunityLend?
Email us: info@communitylend.com
Call us toll free: 1.888.536.3025 (9:00am – 5:00pm EST)
The Finance Hour beginning Sept 18th @ 9am – radio 1050
The first edition of The Finance Hour comes this Saturday morning 18th September at 9am in Ontario at CP24 radio 1050. Michael Garrity is co-hosting with James Plewak of Strength finance, and their first weeks guest is Ian Cunningham, CMO of CapitalOne.
James Plewak-Sept 18 show promo
