The right partner for social lending communities in Europe
Social lending is, in its broadest sense, the name given to a certain breed of financial transaction which occurs directly between individuals ("peers"). The approach is based on the creation of a community where borrowers and lenders can interact directly. Inside the network a market is created where the rates are determined directly by offer and demand. It is a revolution in personal finance that replaces the traditional financial model with a peer-to peer approach.
The efficiency and security of the model is based on the service provided by the network that looks at the credit scores of people looking to borrow and work out whether they fit into the a predefined risk profile available for lenders.
The business model was created in United Kingdom, and has quickly expanded through USA, Europe and Asia.
Experian has recently entered into a partnership with some major
European communities such as Zopa.it (part of Zopa, the first social
network established in Uk in 2005) and Comunitae.com (the first Spanish
social lending community).
Both of these organisations use Experian scorecards for personal loans,
which are designed to provide immediate online credit risk assessment,
so all lenders can fix the price of the loan depending on the solvency
of a borrower, their probability of default and likelihood to repay.
Paolo Andreatta, Risk Manager Zopa Italy: “Our main aim is the quality of rating for borrowers, and Experian is a proven provider of decisioning technology. Experian´s scorecard models, based on analytics, will help us to offer our customers a better service and support our community in their lending decisions.”
For Jose Angel Hernandez, Risk Manager Comunitae: “Delivering the right tools to our customers is key for the success of this business model. Comunitae´s users will have the ability to make informed decisions thanks to Experian.”
Mark Heaven, Business Development Director Experian’s Decision Analytics EMEA, commented: “These agreements mean that every social lending platform user will benefit from the same effective and advanced tools for assesing credit risk that major European banks are using. For us, it is a great opportunity to put our consultancy and analytics services at the user´s disposal”.
“We are proud of these partnerships as social networks have grown at a phenomenal rate over the last three years, and the market showed no sign of slowing down*. More importantly, the reach of social networking websites increased during 2007, they now attract a much wider range of users in terms of age, interests and social background- and they all have the chance to benefit from our expertise in credit risk management”.
*Source: “The impact of social networking in UK” white paper by Hitwise and Experian Integrated Marketing.
.........
| .Read about Analytics |
| Visit the website to read more » |
| .Related links |
| www.zopa.it » l www.comunitae.com » |
Contact us for further discussions about this article