Chewing the fat, shooting the breeze, having a natter - call it what you like, talking to people is darn important and everyone should do it as often as they can (except in libraries). We talk to our members as much as possible, through our blog and discussion board and by getting people to email contactus@zopa.com if anything's on their mind.
A very interesting set of observations here on alternatives to banking, how easy they are to get going and a good question as to why more of us haven’t been doing this for longer.
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It seems like hardly any time ago at all that we were blogging about being four, but it’ that time of year again and we’ve hit half a decade! If Zopa were a person, we’d be off to school in September. Instead, we’re busy not-quite-but-nearly winning Boldness in Business Awards and featuring in The Independent and The Spectator. Way ahead of our years, if we may say so ourselves! To celebrate, we’re offering one 5% loan a day to a lucky borrower, and are having a bit of a bash on Thursday night - watch this space for our party pics.
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Had a very grown up evening last night at the FT ArcelorMittal ‘Boldness in Business‘ awards at the Tate Modern. We were up for the ‘Most Promising Newcomer’ award for the company that has broken through in the last 12 months and has the potential to grow into a leader in its industry. The newcomer bit felt a little ironic as we are about to celebrate our 5th birthday - quite old by Internet standards if not in comparison to most of the businesses at the event, but the rest of it sounded good to me!
The evening was hosted by Lionel Barber, editor of the FT and Lakshmi Mittal, two rather important men in their own ways. I felt enormously privileged to be sitting next to Internet royalty in the shape of Jimmy Wales, who also gave an impressive speech about Wikipedia, and as a motor racing/car nut, Nigel Kerr of the Mercedes (formerly Brawn) F1 team which was up for the ‘Entrepreneurship’ award after their astonishing achievements in the last 12 months. He gave a great account of that extraordinary story as well as enough juicy insider stuff to keep me thoroughly entertained. I was disappointed they didn’t win.
A highlight of the evening for me was Sergio Marchionne winning the ‘Driver of Change’ award and speaking passionately about the Fiat turnaround, the boldness of the Chrysler deal, the response from the US administration and most importantly the commitment shown by the unions and the Chrysler staff (to whom he dedicated the award) in fighting for survival. I wish him all the best with that one – he was honest enough to admit he didn’t know how it would play out.
So why am I telling you all this? Sadly not because we won - we lost to Twitter, which doesn’t feel too shameful. I had to pinch myself that our company of 22 people was being included in the same room as not only Twitter but Spotify and in other categories Vale, the world’s biggest producer of iron ore, Suntech, the world’s largest solar module manufacturer and Tullow Oil, the oil and gas explorer, amongst other great businesses. I thought of my late colleague Richard Duvall as I sat there, the boldest businessman I have ever worked with, and the pride he would have felt. I felt it too.
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So a few days since the last update where it was all looking a bit gloomy on the GB medals front - no longer!
Ok, so we may only have one medal - but it’s a gold one. On Saturday Amy Williams took gold in the skeleton, beating British favourite Shelley Rudman.
Elsewhere, we missed out on the bobsleigh and the men and women’s curling medals, but we’ve got a medal chance in the speed skating on Friday with Jon Eley through to to the quarter finals.
Team GB’s only event today is the giant slalom, so all eyes are on Chemmy Alcott - watch this space!
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Day 6 of the Olympics and still not a sniff of a medal for Team GB – well it’s the taking part that matters, surely?
The men’s curling team put in a more convincing performance yesterday with a fairly straightforward victory over France, while the women were defeated by Sweden. Still, there are still definite possibilities of a medal in both, so one to watch.
Halfpipe snowbarder Ben Kilner looked very promising in the quarter finals of his event, but sadly suffered a fall in the semi final to finish in 18th place. Though, at just 21, he’s got a couple more tries in him yet!
Over in the medal tables, the USA have reclaimed the lead, with 5 golds, 3 silver and 6 bronze. We’re not quite there yet, but with the skeleton starting today, we’re hoping that Shelley Rudman can pull it out of the bag to claim our first.
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So, despite the hype, GB managed to lose 4-6 to Sweden in the curling last night. There was better news in the women’s snowboard cross, with Zoe Gillings finishing 8th, but as yet we’re yet to get on the medals table!
The women’s curling team are in action this evening against China and Sweden, in a competition that’s wide open. Meanwhile, Germany has taken the lead in the medals table, with an impressive 9 medals, 3 of them gold. Come on team GB, you’ve got some catching up to do!
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The Winter Olympics opened at the weekend with a sombre tone, following the tragic death of Georgian luge contender Nodar Kumaritashvili. However, the show must go on and the games are well underway – and at the beginning of Day 4, no medals for Team GB just yet.
Alpine skier Ed Drake said he was chuffed to finish 38th in his first Olympic games, while figure skaters David King and Stacey Kemp achieved a personal best in the figure skating to finish 16th.
Switzerland top the medal table (they’ve got loads of mountains and snow – an unfair advantage?) with the USA in second place and South Korea in 3rd. We’ve got chances coming up though – we take on Sweden in the curling this afternoon, where we’re hotly tipped for a medal, so watch this space!
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This Saturday, the 2010 Winter Olympic Games will begin in Vancouver. We’ll be behind Team GB all the way, with all the latest news and our special Zopa medal tally, so make sure you bookmark our blog for all the updates!
Our most successful ever Winter Olympics was in Chamonix in 1924, where we won 1 gold, 1 silver, and 2 bronze medals so it’s about time we put in a good performance. According to reports, we should expect medals in the ladies alpine skiing, short track speed skating, ice dancing and the snowboard cross, so watch this space…
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In January, we disbursed £3.81 million to our borrowers, making it our biggest month ever. We’re pretty chuffed with this, so thanks to all our members for making it possible. And with our table-topping A* rates, we hope to have an even better February!
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A good review and discussion of P2P lending and the performance of various of the players in the global market here. Please do add your thoughts to Giles’ comments on it too!
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We spotted an interesting post here from Rajesh who was CTO of Zopa in the US and is an excellent technologist with a great understanding of the lending business.
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Our friends at P2P-Banking.com have posted an interesting review of P2P lending here and I thought I would give a personal opinion on the questions they ask:
1. Will there be more competition from new entrants in countries where there is a P2P lender and why isn’t there a competitor to Zopa in the UK? I think there will where regulation permits, and I’m not sure why we don’t have a competitor in the UK yet. It’s also not quite true as www.bigcarrots.com launched at the end of last year for business lending but it’s early days for them. My guess is that it probably looks quite hard work, given that we launched almost 5 years ago. The UK tax regime also isn’t favourable to P2P lending vs the banks, although we are working hard on that. I think things will change somewhat as and when we are able to announce profitability…..Or is it just because we are doing such a good job no one wants to compete with us? Would be very interested in others’ views!
2. Will P2P lenders offer a wider variety of products? Possibly, but the unsecured lending market is gigantic in the UK and other countries, so certainly represents a sufficient opportunity to build a decent business. Furthermore there is a real benefit is specialisation when competing with incumbent banks as it allows us to be much more fleet of foot.
3. Will a bank acquire a P2P lender or at least a share in one? I don’t know, it’s not something we are pursuing!
4. Will an established P2P lender fail? Probably, and I have my own view as to which one(s), but it won’t be us!
5. Will there be cross-market lending? I don’t think so for some considerable time as regulations are too different.
6. Will social-network data be used in credit assessment? It would be interesting and of course we are investigating, but I don’t agree with the assertion that using conventional data necessarily leads to higher than expected losses, or at least it doesn’t at Zopa where we are proud of our risk performance and believe it is central to the success of our business. Other P2P lenders can’t always say the same thing….
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Well, 2009 has certainly been a great year for Zopa and our members; collectively you’ve lent and borrowed more than £32m over the last 12 months - compare that to a total lent of £30m over the preceeding 44 months! Seems that our growth has been spotted elsewhere too.
So we hope that 2009 treated you well too and hope you’ll be back to participate in an even bigger 2010!
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Yep, we got an early Christmas present this week when we found out that we’d been nominated for the Newcomer Award at the Boldness in Business Awards, which is run by the Financial Times and ArcelorMittal.
The results will be announced in February, so we’ll be getting our gladrags on and crossing our fingers, but in the meantime you can see more info about the awards here.
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However good the APR looks on a loan, it’s always worth checking what happens if you want to pay back your loan early. There’s no point being saddled with debt longer than you need to be - but you can face a hefty fee if you repay before the term is up.
While stricter measures were introduced in 2005 reducing the amount a loan provider can chage in the event of early repayment, you will more than likely still be subjected to a month or even two of interest beyond the date you repay. So effectively, you’ll be paying interest on money that you have already paid back. The earlier you repay, the bigger the fee will be.
Even if you don’t plan to repay early, it’s always worth checking with a provider what they would charge you. Rates might come down elsewhere so that you find a better deal, or you might decide to switch the debt to a 0% credit card - so make sure this wouldn’t end up being costly.
The only providers who don’t charge any early repayment fees are Zopa and the Post Office.
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