PR - Prosper Launches People-to-People Lending Market Survey

 
Prosper, America’s largest people-to-people lending marketplace, introduced its first monthly People-to-People Lending Market Survey covering membership and loan volume statistics; marketplace returns; borrower rates; mix of prime, near prime and sub-prime loans; and noteworthy marketplace statistics and trends.  

Prosper was created to make consumer lending more financially and socially rewarding for everyone. Prosper’s membership consists of over 400,000 people from across the country. Since launching in February 2006, over $85 million in loans have been funded in the marketplace. The way Prosper works is intuitive to people who have used eBay. Instead of listing and bidding on items, people list and bid on loans using Prosper’s online auction platform.

For August, the survey showed 30,623 new members of the lending network.  This was up considerably from the 12,825 new members that joined in August 2006. So far in 2007, 270,866 new members have joined bringing total membership to 408,633.

Also in the month, Prosper funded $6.6 million in new loans, up from $3.9 million funded in August 2006. Since its launch, Prosper has funded $85 million in person-to-person loans.

The average loan size stood at $6,733 in August 2007. For the year, the average loan size is $6,969. The average borrower rate on prime select loans in August was 10.15 percent.

Chris Larson, co-founder and CEO of Prosper, commented, "The market turmoil stemming from the ongoing credit crunch, subprime mortgage meltdown and housing value slump naturally begs questions about what impact this market environment is having on the Prosper marketplace. In a nutshell, we would categorize the impact as broadly constructive for Prosper lenders and prime and near prime borrowers. As consumers are being hit with the evaporation of introductory credit card rate offers and home equity loan options, Prosper is becoming an even more attractive financing alternative, particularly for more creditworthy borrowers."

Larson continued, "What remains to be seen is whether lenders on Prosper will start placing less weight on homeownership as a factor in their bidding strategies. It is possible that we may begin to see evidence of this trend given that in our most recent defaulted loan sale the debt buyer placed zero value on homeownership across all credit categories – a highly unusual shift away from placing value on what is typically considered Americans’ largest asset."