The majority of loan applicants do not have a background in personal finance, thus they’re likely unaware of the personal loan process. Getting a personal loan involves much more than completing an application and getting a response. While most banks, credit unions and other lenders quickly respond to loan inquiries, every applicant is carefully screened to determine whether they meet the criteria for a personal loan.   1....

Most of the regulatory talk in Washington today centers on the impact of Dodd-Frank on the finance markets in general and the banks in particular, especially the small banks. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has been an outspoken critic of Dodd-Frank especially when it comes to small banks: “The game is rigged against small banks at two levels,” Gingrich said in an interview at his Washington office. “One is that the aggregated...

While the idea of peer-to-peer lending can be traced back to ancient Mesopotamia, where clay tablets held simple record of loans and interest rates, web-based technologies in the 21st century have taken the peer lending concept mainstream while at the same time increasing the level of sophistication and financial complexity of the lending mechanisms and models — and in the process peer lending has become a $647 million industry in a matter of...

One type of investment that is increasing in popularity among investors is peer-to-peer, or P2P, or social lending. Web-based p2p lending sites that connect people looking to borrow money to people looking to lend money become everyday more popular among the investor’s community. Thinking of P2P lenders as merely lenders masks the complexity of their role. On P2P lending sites, a lender is both a lender and an investor because, as in any...

Peer-to-Peer lending is a relatively new way to lend and borrow money, and more than that – it is also a new type of investor asset class. As with any new industry, we can expect the players to become smarter, more sophisticated, and the peer to peer lending industry is no exception. This raises a question: will the long term success of the Peer-to-Peer lending industry rest more on smart lenders or smart borrowers? A third option is that long...

What is peer-to-peer lending? Peerform is peer-to-peer lending!   When you need a loan, your first thought is to turn to a bank or to use your credit cards to borrow money. Both ways can carry heavy fees and very high interest rates. Peer-to-peer lending is changing all of that by making lending more efficient. People looking for a loan can now turn to peers rather than banks and credit card companies. By cutting out banks, lending is more...