P2P-Banking.com

According to the Wall Street Journal p2p lending service Zopa will launch in the US next week. Zopa has been established in the UK since 2005. The long announced US start had been postponed several times due to regulation issues.

In the US Zopa will partner with six credit unions. Lenders will benefit since they can be sure to get their principal back - deposits are insured up to $100,000 per member. This is new for p2p lending, where lenders usually carry the default risk (only Dutch p2p lending service Boober.nl guarantees for certain credit grades the bulk of the pricipal via insurance against default.
According to the WSJ article neither lenders nor borrowers will have to pay fees to use Zopa but have to sign up with one of the six participating credit unions.

An article on Netbanker.com already spoke of congestion, since Globefunder and Loanio will launch at a later stage and Prosper, Lending Club and Virgin Money are active in the market.

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Tom reports that Loanio.com will launch this fall. Loanio has a welcome page up since 3 month, collecting email adresses of those who want to be notified at launch.

The site Loanio.com currently only consists of an announcement saying “People Lending to People - Coming Soon”. But they are already advertising the site.

British p2p lending service Zopa.com announced in an email, that it now plans to launch nationwide in the US changing older plans for a US launch limited to California. No date was given but sources say the launch is not immanent, but could rather take place mid-year.