Last summer, reading the NYTimes, I read an article on savings alternatives where I compared P2P lending with other alternatives such as bonds and real estate. Here is what it said about this asset. It is true that the American market has been developing for a longer period of time, but we hope to see the levels of activity here in Spain soon.
"PEER-TO-PEER LENDING In early 2011, I expressed wariness about relatively new services like Lending Club andProsper that allow individuals to invest money in loans that other people take out. Since then, however, the services have been humming along quite nicely, delivering returns of roughly 7 percent to investors who spread their money in small bits among hundreds of loans to the most creditworthy borrowers.
Wings, regulatory hurdles prevent the companies from taking your money in some states, including Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, Michigan and Massachusetts, though residents of New York, California, Illinois and Connecticut are free to try their luck. There are other eligibility requirements, too, based on income or net worth; check the company's Web sites for more detail.
The beauty of this investment is that the two sites exist in large part to undermine big banks. At Prosper, 46 percent of recent loans were to people who were consolidating debt from elsewhere (often from credit cards), while at Lending Club, debt consolidation and paying off higher-interest credit cards account for just over 70 percent of all loans since inception."