Kyle Gentile asked:


If you have heard the term peer to peer lending or social lending or have never heard it before, the process is growing in popularity day by day. It definition is implicit in the name peer to peer lending and it is the process of individuals lending money to each other.

It is rooted with the idea that a bank should not play a large role and reap the majority of returns. In the model of social lending, the bank or financial institution facilitates the loans and get a small rate of return for doing so. In essence it is cutting down the middle man. To get the true underlying rationale, we need to examine the basic model of receiving a loan from a bank.

It begins with individuals using banks as a method of saving their money. The banks pay a low rate of return for the deposits as for the banks right to use the money for lending. On other side are individuals applying for a loan or mortgage. The bank takes the deposits it has and lends to the borrower at a much higher rate of interest. The difference in interest paid and interest earned is the bank’s revenue. In this model all of the risk is assumed by the bank. Meaning, the obligation of paying interest to the saver and preventing default of lent money is the risk.

With peer to peer lending the model is shifted. The bank or institution pays a much smaller role. An individual lender can choose what to lend and who to lend too and therefore majority of the profit from the loan is transfer directly to the lender. With this trade off of less bank involvement there is an increase in risk to the individual lender in the form of default. For the borrower, the benefit is more often than not a lower cost of transaction translating itself into a lower rate of interest on the loan.

How peer to peer lending is actually facilitated is an auction process with a basic market place provided by the lending institution. Which means the institution that processes the loans between individuals is the one that provides the method for individuals to find each other. Then the borrowers and lenders are able to select each other. Now, the lending to a person you have never met before does has its risk, but the presence and responsibility of the financial intermediary is to ensure individuals are accurately represented.

This is a concept would have never been considered until a few years ago. The internet actually is the stage that allows this to happen. The increase sociability of individuals caused by use of the internet provides this unique way to invest and borrow money never before possible.



p2p banking