We Wish You A Merry Linkfest

Unlike many stores, I at least had the decency to avoid Christmas references until after Thanksgiving. Now onto the giftwrapped, linky goodness.

My MicroFinance - Zzzzz… Zopa.com

Have you ever been promised something, then that day comes and you don’t get exactly what you were told you were getting (kind of like Christmas morning)? Well, that is how I feel about Zopa.com. I remember hearing and cheering this idea on back in the Fall of 2006… Hmmm, quick check of the calendar indicates it’s now Fall of 2007 and Zopa.com is just, finally, going to open shop in the US of A next week.

So why am I not excited? Well, several horrifying changes have been made to the US platform vs. the UK parent.

Netbanker - Congestion at the Starting Gate? Three New U.S. P2P Lenders Set to Launch: Zopa, GlobeFunder, and Loanio

Less that two years after the first P2P launched in the U.S., it looks like we'll soon have at least five companies chasing this new market, six if you include Virgin Money.

AP - Consumers Eye Social Lending On The Web

Nash and Fisher are members of Prosper.com, the U.S. leader in a growing trend known as peer-to-peer lending, which facilitates loans between complete strangers.

Social lending has been around since the days when needy families turned to the richest man in town, but the Web is breathing new life into the practice. Loans on Prosper and Facebook's LendingClub have risen to $100 million this year from $27 million in 2006, according to Online Banking Report. By 2010, the report forecasts $1 billion in peer-to-peer loan originations.

Prosper Press Release - Prosper Crosses $100 Million Threshold -- Freakonomics Author to Keynote Prosper Days

America’s largest people-to-people lending marketplace, today announced that over $100 million in loans have funded in the Prosper marketplace. Prosper also announced that Stephen Dubner, author of Freakonomics, will keynote at its second annual Prosper Days community conference to be held in San Francisco on February 25^th and 26^th, 2008.