Start-up P2P lending “Credit Exchange”. Part one. Introductory

    Hello, Dear Habralumi!

    Very soon, the project of the first in Russia P2P lending platform “Credit Exchange” will start. This phenomenon is new, the people are not too familiar. Therefore, we hasten to tell you about what lies behind this intricate abbreviation “P2P” and try to figure out what are the prospects for its development in our country.
    By and large, this is another clone of Western successful projects. We love all sorts of “Russian analogues” of foreign success. And now, it seems, Russia is being captured by the western wave of a new method of financing, and, concurrently, an investment instrument, the so-called P2P lending. So, two in one.
    The term P2P itself comes from the English “people-to-people” or “peer-to-peer, which in translation means“ from person to person ”, or“ from level to level ”.
    The phenomenon is exclusively online. Thus, individuals lend to the same individuals on a specialized website on the Internet. The main idea of ​​these projects is to increase the profitability for the Investor, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, to increase the availability and cheaper cost of the loan for the Borrower by eliminating the financial intermediary (bank) between both parties to the loan agreement.
    Schematically, the lending procedure itself is as follows: Investors and Borrowers are registered on the site, the Borrower is assigned a certain reputation rating that reflects the degree of trust in it, and, accordingly, will “prompt” the potential Investor to lend to such a Borrower.
    The borrower forms an application for a loan, which is placed in the application database in the System - the investor selects from the database of generated applications those that meet the criteria set by him and distributes between them the amount that he decided to invest in the investment. The degree of profitability of the Investor is determined by him, based on the level of risk that he has determined for himself. Risks of the Investor are insured by the fact that, in essence, he makes portfolio investments, thereby reducing the possibility of non-repayment of money by one Borrower. The entire P2P design is based on a rating system for borrowers. This takes into account not only their behavior and reputation on the site, but also their credit histories, the availability of guarantors and the information that they provided about themselves during registration.
    There are already a lot of similar sites around the world. The first Kiva.org P2P lending platform appeared 5 years ago in the USA. Behind it, like mushrooms after a summer rain, prosper.com, lendingclub.com, smava.de, and many, many other resources appeared one after another. To date, under the P2P system loans have been issued for 740 million US dollars.
    It is interesting that such P2P platforms work not only in the territories of developed countries. For example, even African cooperatives get a loan on kiva.org!
    However, such sites are reaching Russia only now. In June, the so-called Credit Exchange (Birjakreditov) promises to launch, positioning itself almost as an analog to prosper.com.
    And some time ago, a similar service was offered by WebMoney. His lendmoney.ru is very similar to the above sites. With only one difference - all payments are made only in WebMoney currency, and only in its dollar equivalent. In addition to this, one must have certain skills and incredible patience to deal with the WebMoney system itself, which is so “for people” that the devil will break his leg in it.
    With all the seemingly inconvenience, such a service is in demand. Currently, about 110,000 people are registered on the site, of which about 10,000 are active users. Loans are issued for $ 3.1 million over the 2 years of the service’s existence. For comparison, 960,000 members were registered at rosper.com, and loans issued for $ 200 million, lendingclub.com -140,000 members, and loans for $ 110 million.
    Will P2P take root in Russia? There are certainly chances. However, perhaps only if such services break the mistrust of Investors. This can be helped by giving online loan agreements legal force. Unfortunately, at the moment, Russian legislation is not sufficiently adapted to business on the Internet and what is possible in the West and in Russia causes a lot of legal difficulties. They try to solve them in different ways. WebMoney proposed creating an electronic currency, behind which there is a rather complex mechanism, which is essentially a bill scheme. The Credit Exchange suggests using a more reliable and convenient electronic digital signature (EDS) mechanism when concluding loan agreements.
    It remains to be hoped that Russian legislation will gradually be synchronized with world standards and in line with global trends, because, according to experts, a huge part of existing businesses will gradually “move” to the Internet, and it is very important that our legislative bodies focus on their work world economic trends.
    PS. We will be grateful for your opinions and constructive discussion.

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