> Posted by Center Staff
The world is witnessing a rebound in Web-facilitated, peer-to-peer microlending. That creates some interesting mirrors in which developing-world microfinance can reflect.
Slate‘s Farhad Manjoo mulls how peer-to-peer lending pioneer Prosper.com has overcome a rough patch and “has … seen the public becoming more interested in lending and borrowing through the site; lending activity is rising, and so far, borrowers are paying back their loans at a rate that keeps lenders coming back.”
Prosper (whose CEO and founder, Chris Larsen, sits on CFI’s Advisory Council) may mean different things to different people. But progress for peer-to-peer lending sites of this kind, which Manjoo tags as a sort of “eBay for credit,” at a minimum seems to be evidence for:
- a potentially reinvigorated intersection of technology and microlending
- an industry with a capacity to come through growing pains with lessons learned and a promising horizon
All of which means what for financial inclusion? It’s too early to say, but we want to keep our finger on that pulse.
Image credit: Tango! Desktop Project