From this it appears Prosper.com relaunch is imminent.
Looks Like Prosper.com is On Its Way Back! | Prosper lending Review
I checked out Prosper, and sure enough, another one of those ominous "down for maintenance" pages like we saw the day before the Finovate Conference.
Paraphrasing Anthony’s email he says that the US SEC approved Prosper’s new securitized note trading platform at 3:30 PM on Friday, and that they pulled the site down over the weekend through Monday.
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Tagged: p2p lending, prosper
Apologies that our public site is down. Strangely our beta application on the same server is still working, but we are working to resolve the main site problem.
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The Globe and Mail carry a useful guide to the new credit card rules, and it is useful reading to see just how it will help and also not help the average consumer. The focus appears very much to be on disclosure. Click through for details.
Canada’s credit-card industry would be required to improve disclosure to consumers and change some business practices under new regulations introduced yesterday by the federal government. But how exactly would the changes affect consumers once they come into force?
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Tagged: credit cards, government regulation
Our sincere congratulations to Prosper who re-opened today as noted in this letter from CEO Chris Larsen.
Thank You Prosper Community, Thank You California! | Letter from Chris Larsen
We are pleased to announce that Prosper is now open for business once again after a six month hiatus. At this time we are launching to borrowers nationwide and to individual and institutional lenders in California. We hope to be fully national soon.
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Tagged: p2p lending, prosper
We have been quiet of late as we work through our own registration with Canadian regulators. In the meantime we actively watch the results of the existing lenders, including Lending Club in the US who are currently the only active and registered p2p lender with the US securities regime, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
This article contains references and photo’s of all the US sites and describes the current state of regulatory approvals in the US. The regulation in Canada is following a similar approach, and we still plan to be the first launched and approved p2p lender in Canada.
Where Credit Still Flows | Wall Street Journal
While still tiny, the social-lending business is gaining serious momentum. The dollar amount of outstanding loans jumped 41.7% in 2008 to $102 million, according to Jim Bruene, founder of Seattle-based NetBanker, which tracks the online finance world. Bruene figures that figure could hit $1 billion by 2013.
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I recently had the opportunity to participate in this survey and become part of their advisory board. The efforts of the group in simple terms are to further the cause of sustainable computer systems.
The general theme is one of overwhelming desire to reap the combined benefits of a smaller footprint along with the commensurate costs savings, but a general sense of not being quite sure where to begin.
The key is that there is a desire and a need, and this effort represents one small step towards ever more thoughtful growth in data centres and computer systems.
Colin
Report—IT Sustainability Imperatives in Internet and eCommerce Business
This study shows eCommerce companies are in need of green IT and efficiencies, but are failing to take appropriate action. They are more sensitized to going green in the datacenter, but lack the necessary leadership.
Report it-sustainability1
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Tagged: sustainability eco green
This was an unprecedented week for the financial services industry in Canada, with a ground breaking $200bn made available to support Canadian Banks.
Budget 2009: Canada’s Economic Action Plan
Action to Improve Access to Financing and Strengthen Canada’s Financial System
Providing up to $200 billion through the Extraordinary Financing Framework to improve access to financing for consumers and allow businesses to obtain the financing they need to invest, grow and create new jobs.
These measures are available only to Schedule A Banks.
Federally regulated financial institutions are eligible to sell into the facility and provincially regulated financial institutions may be eligible on the approval of the Minister of Finance
These extraordinary support measures beg the question of what accountability Canadian taxpayers should expect from the recipients of this assistance.
Two questions to muse collectively:-
1. How will the financial institutions be held accountable for participating in these measures?
- Will the government set lending volume objectives on a quarterly basis?
- Will the government set rate caps by risk criteria, sectorial volume objectives etc?
2. How do we contextualise other recent announcements made by Canadian Banks?
- Personal Line of Credit interest rates increased by 1% or more
- Fees introduced to Line of Credit holders with zero balance
- Decreases in the central bank rate not passed on to reflect consumer and business lending rates
- Increase in credit card rates if late on a payment, and to cover expected higher default rates
- Increased merchant fees for credit card transactions
Bank names are withheld to keep the focus on the broader issue of raising prices while receiving assistance in a time of financial crisis.
Thoughts welcome.
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Tagged: banks, budget
A timely and informative article on family budgetting. It makes several excellent points, with the central theme that the entire family is in it together, so a common plan is useful and more likely to succeed when everyone has at least some idea of the general family finances. It makes the point that not every detail on say credit cards needs to be shared, but some general direction on that is very useful to let everyone appreciate the family situation.
Don’t have a family budget? Yikes! | Globe and Mail
“It’s beneficial to consider the family as a financial team,” Mr. Heath says. “All team members should be in on making decisions or being aware of the current status of the financial situation.” Making it a team effort will help cut down on the stress of constantly nagging the kids to turn off the lights or spend less time in the shower.
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Tagged: budget
Umair Haque maintains a fascinating blog where he follows the direction of business and his perspective on the changes in the economy are interesting to us at CommunityLend. When you are breaking new ground, it is useful to be able to relate to grander changes going on in the world.
A User’s Guide to 21st Century Economics
Tomorrow will not be like yesterday. This is no mere recession tectonic global shift in savings, consumption, and investment. Today’s macropocalypse is a rupture in the global economic fabric – and the next half-decade will be spent reweaving it. It is not a temporary departure from business as usual, an illness – it is a structural transformation, a lasting change
These are powerful statements. He goes on to summarise a few of the posts from 2008 where he used certain market leaders as examples to point out the difference between old and new.
Tomorrow’s market leaders have new DNA. We’ve spent the last year identifying next-generation leaders – from the Obama campaign, to Threadless, to Zara – and learning from them. They look and feel radically different because they were built for 21st century economics, not 20th century economics.
The points being made here are fundamental and it is hard to disagree with them. The role of marketing is exposed as fulfilling what he describes as consumer addiction by using Madison Avenue tactics to push products. Whereas the role of marketing in 2009 is about producing value with that value being defined as the value felt by the customer. There are no more consumers – there are real people seeking value.
The role of corporations in this new world is one of innovation – innovation where companies will offer “higher level innovation” which provides that real value. What is the role of innovation in a world where greater investment will flow to reinventing moribund industries?
In the 20th century, innovation was about processes, products, and services: that’s why most boardrooms are still investing in lower-order innovation. At the Lab, we’ve found that higher-order innovation – business model, strategic, and management innovation – is associated with significantly more powerful and durable value creation. Think Apple (reinforcing simple product innovations, like the iPod and iPhone, with disruptive new value chain designs, via iTunes and the Apps Market).
The article might be a bit philosophical, but we are experiencing new times that have not been experienced during the lifetimes of most of us. It is becoming clear this is not a minor correction but rather, a dramatic shift in business and the old axiom of “it is not business as usual” has never been more relevant than now. CommunityLend intends to be part of that shift.
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The Canadian government continues to pressure banks to ensure they keep consumer lending going. The negative headlines from the US relative to credit certainly flow over into Canada and levels of Canadian consumer confidence.
Canadians voice concerns over access to credit, Flaherty says | Globe and Mail
TORONTO — Finance Minister Jim Flaherty says consumers across the country are worried about access to credit.
“We are hearing across Canada concerns about access to credit,” Mr. Flaherty said Tuesday. “It is a major issue going into 2009.”
The finance minister said in Toronto he will be talking to the country’s major banks and working to ensure there is affordable and accessible lending.
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