P2P-Banking.com

MyC4.com accelerated growth during the past month. This is shown by stats on MyC4Stats.com (provided by Wiseclerk.com) showing the loan volume by origination month. Compared to earlier months the loan volume rose sharply in December and January. In December 150,000 Euro loans and in January 250,000 Euro loans were disbursed to African entrepreneurs.

(Source: MyC4Stats.com)

The new MyC4Stats page offers reports helping lenders to find open MyC4 loan listings with the best rates. At MyC4 - unlike at Prosper - every lender funds a loan at his individual interest rate. In fact 50 different lenders funding one specific loan may each earn different, self-set interest rates. While MyC4 sets a maximum for the weighted average interest rate for each loan, it is still possible for an individual lender to bid higher and earn more after funding.

Example: A 2500 Euro loan to Clementine Gbrou, who exports grains to Europe the maximum weighted Wanted interest rate was 12% (lender interest, not borrower). This loan closed with a weighted average interest rate of 11,64% (lender interest). The individual lenders in this loan earn DIFFERENT selfselected interest rate between 3% and 13.5%. Several lenders thus achieved above average rates.

How to find the best loans?

To select the loans with the best rates for bidding in the listing phase a quick overview of available listings sorted by the maximum possible interest rates that can be bid, is important. Several tables on MyC4Stats help lenders on this. Sample screenshot:

(Source: MyC4Stats.com)

The report presents the listings sorted by maximum interest rate (column Maximum bid) that can be bid and states the Euro amount above this rate that serves as a buffer before being outbid. The buffer is caused by the rule that new bids must always be place at least 0.5% lower then the current high bid.

Today a new MyC4 release went online. The new version allows multiple standing orders which can be targeted by country, provider and/or industry of the borrower. There are several small improvements in usability, e.g. display of borrower APR.

MyC4 users have transfered 507,000 Euro in funds, but so far only 214,000 Euro of those have been loaned. Demand in loan opportunities is lagging behind investor's cash looking for investments. The majority of lenders (investors) still is Danish - MyC4 is located in Denmark, but the number of investors in other countries is rising.

So far I am satisfied with MyC4. I have invested in more than 50 active loans - true microloans - sometimes my share is as low 10 Euro - and so far everything is going smooth. Another 16 bids are on open listing opportunities.

After MyC4.com was featured on Danish national TV in a 15 minute feature many new lenders signed up. Within 3 days lender count rose from about 500 to currently 964. At MyC4 lenders (called investors) loan money to African entrepreneurs. The bidding frency of new lenders did lower closing interest rate dramatically. Loans now closed at 2 to 3 percent lender interest rate (previously usually 10 to 12 percent). MyC4 will now have to increase the number of listings, otherwise they might be temporably be sold out like happened to Kiva.
Yesterday the first loan listings from Ivory Coast went online.

In early September I started funding peer-to-peer microloans to African entrepreneurs on MyC4. Yesterday the first repayments were credited to my account. Siraje Sselugo, a poultry farmer, that wanted to increase the number on chicken paid on time. I had loaned him 20 Euro for a 6 month term at 24% interest. Lydia Lwanga, who sells school stationary and wants to stock more products with the loan, repaid on time. My loan to her was 15 Euro for a 6 month term at 22% interest. All the other repayments were on time, too:

(Screenshot of my account balance at MyC4).

MyC4 allows minimum bids of 10 Euro. So far my portfolio contains 37 small bids on funded loans.

MyC4.com switched today from closed beta to public beta. Now it is possible to browse the site without registering. For example click on one of the opportunities on the left of the screen and you get a good idea of the concept.

MyC4 allows lenders to do microlending to entrepreneurs in Africa. Lenders do get paid interest. Check the previous P2P-Banking coverage of MyC4.

MyC4 introduced "automatic bidding", an automatic bidding assistant that will bid on any new loan listings that match parameters set by the lender. Similar to the Standing Orders feature of Prosper.com, but not with as many selection criteria.
Mads Kjaer, CEO of MyC4, said:

The Auto Bid request came from several of the businesses we have talked with and also several Builders who asked for a quick way of get going.

You could say that this feature is also the preparation for e.g. philantrophy funds or bi-lateral organisations who want to use My4 to reach micro entrepeneurs in Africa at NO COST = 100.000 credits is 100.000 credits invested …

MyC4 now also enables the use of Paypal to transfer money into the MyC4 account.