A few weeks ago we published our first report on so-called person-to-person lending (see OBR #127). Two companies have created P2P lending exchanges, Prosper in the U.S. and Zopa in the U.K. (see NetBanker Feb. 25). While we like the concept, these exchanges have a number of hurdles to overcome. One of the challenging issues is how to convince individuals to loan money to strangers.

Most P2P lending is between family and friends. And that won't change no matter how big the loan marketplaces becomes. Government reports peg the interpersonal loan market at $80 to $90 billion.

One of the stickiest issues in friends-and-family lending is keeping the borrower current on their agreed-upon repayment schedule. It's easy for kids to "forget" that loan payment to mom and dad; likewise, parents don't want to put a damper on Sunday dinner with a discussion of junior's financial situation.

Financial institutions could play a role in automating personal loan repayments, by putting the repayment transactions on autopilot. It can already be done through bill payment systems that support automated recurring payments. But users still need to do their own research to come up with the correct amortization schedule.

How it would work
With a little programming, a bank could develop a module that allows lenders to set up a repayment plan by entering the loan details (amount, interest rate including zero, and term) and borrower info (name, email address). An email would go to the borrower asking them to agree to the terms, authorize the deduction from their bank account, and provide bank account details. The borrower would also be required to authenticate their access to the account through username/password or by correctly identifying small deposits made to their account.

The lender or borrower (if authorized) should be able to log in at any time and suspend or alter the automatic deductions.

The business case
Borrowers and/or lenders could be charged a set-up fee for each loan, plus small transaction fees each month. For example, a $75 set-up fee plus $3 per payment. Pricing could be tiered by loan size.

If 2% of your online banking base eventually used the service, it could generate $1,000 to $1,200 in annual revenues per 1,000 online banking users (assuming average loan term of three years). For Bank of America, that's $15 to $20 million per year. But for a community bank or mid-size credit union, it might generate only a few thousand dollars annually.

Unless you are large, that's not enough to justify programming it yourself; however, if a software company made it available for a reasonable fee, it might make a good new feature for online banking. As the industry matures, banks will need to add value to their services to attract more users. Also, the long-term nature of loan repayments, especially with family lending, could help tie both the lender and borrow to your bank for years.

Service providers
There is already one company that's been facilitating person-to-person loans for more than four years: CircleLending.com, a company we first learned about in a favorable Wall Street Journal article published in 2002. The company has taken the concept to a high level, facilitating not just personal unsecured loans, but also owner-financed real estate, commercial loans, and other complex secured funding (click on screenshot right for details). It charges $199 plus $9 per payment for simple loans, up to $1000 or more for mortgages.

Another newcomer, PalTrust, is an apparently small startup that has a two-page website, <paltrust.com> with a mockup of its personal lending application. The patent-pending process looks much like PayPal (click on screenshot for a closeup).

--JB