We won the Webby award for Financial Services. Huzzah!!

Thank you to all the borrowers and lenders for helping make Zopa what it is.

We’ve been nominated in the Banking/Bill Paying section (which we won last year) AND in the Financial Services category. You can vote for us in both categories and we promise to come back with a fetching photo should we win.

So, vote Zopa, you know it makes sense.

Zopa.com has been nominated for The 12th Annual Webby Awards in the Banking/Bill Paying category and also the Financial Services category. Get us!

Last year we won the award for the Banking/Bill paying category and this year we’re canvassing for your help.

You have the chance to cast your vote for the People’s Voice award, you can vote for us in both categories. (You know you want to….)

“Choose one of the four ballots — Websites, Advertising, Film and Video or Mobile. Simply select a nominee from a category and click the cast my vote button on the ballot page for the category you are voting in. It’s that easy.”

You will just need to register on their site. (very quick and painless) Then scroll down the the Banking/Bill paying category, another little scroll and you’ll see Financial Services. Couple of clicks and away you go!

Vote for Zopa

We’ll keep you updated. Thank you in advance for your votes!

We were up against distinguished opposition such as Paypal, Vodafone, Wal-Mart and Prosper. There were lots of the great and the good of the banking industry at the awards ceremony and much talk in the acceptance speeches about the challenges banks face in restoring consumer trust, to which events like the failure of Northern Rock, Bear Stearns, continued tales of woe around US sub-prime losses, the resultant enormous write-downs at huge organisations like UBS and reduced bank liquidity have all contributed. The guest speaker also joked about how disconnected from consumers senior bankers were.

In my acceptance speech, while poking a little gentle fun about feeling very grown up to be spending the evening in a room full of bankers, I made a couple of serious points:

1. The decreasing consumer trust that so many had talked about was
playing directly into our hands. Before we launched Zopa, we talked a lot
about how an important challenge for our new, and therefore untrusted
business would be to build that trust, given that banks were clearly
trusted to be solid and secure if not always to look after their
customers’ best interests, but little did we know how recent events
would conspire to help us.

2. While we were delighted to be considered threatening by the banking
industry I doubted whether too many in the room actually felt too
threatened, perhaps more intrigued. I considered that if we were to be a
threat it wouldn’t be because we were explicitly anti-bank, more that we
were pro-consumer. Indeed if any of the banks would like to work with us
in that pro-consumer mission we would be delighted to welcome them.

Enough seriousness, a thoroughly good time was had by all, or at least
by me anyway - which can be evidenced by the fact that at some stage of
the night that followed, at some venue in W1, I managed to lose our
precious (and very tasteful) glass award. Oh dear, better take a look on
eBay….

Enjoy!

If you have any Zopa credit questions you’d like to ask, please do come along. The chat will run for an hour and we look forward to seeing you there.

We’re using a group chat tool for this session so click here, choose the name you’ll use for the chat, and away we go!

Johnnie Moore pointed us towards Monevator and a recent post about Zopa and we thought it contained some food (pun intended, following biscuit reference earlier) for thought:

“Clearly, the credit crunch is having an effect on Zopa’s peer-to-peer lending market, either by:
*Increasing the number of Zopa borrowers, and so decreasing the pressure for lenders to compete via reducing rates.
*Reducing the number of lenders, and so reducing the range of offers for borrowers to choose from.
*Making lenders nervous, so we’re all raising our rates.
Plus I see a fourth, really unpleasant possibility:
More lower-quality (or even dishonest) borrowers are coming to Zopa.”

We really don’t think you need to worry about that fourth one. Our default rate remains at less than 0.1% and we’ve seen no evidence of increasing bad debt. With our state-of-the-art credit and affordability checks, we’re confident that our credit process will continue to perform well.

So, sit back, relax and have a really nice relaxing biscuit and tea filled weekend!

We’ve added a couple of threads about this on our discussion boards for borrowers and lenders.

tweet tweet

While we’re upgrading our current hardware, you will be able to view general Zopa pages but will not be able to view account information.

During this time, the discussion boards and blog will be available, so feel free to chat with other members of the Zopa community until we’re back!

Murray was previously Credit Risk Director for GE Capital, Citibank and HFC Bank with over 20 years experience of consumer credit risk management.

If you can’t make the time but have a question you’d like answered, please leave him a question on our discussion board here.

Nearer the time I’ll do an update post with the location of the chat.

Look forward to seeing you there.

We’re upgrading our current hardware to something new and shiny and it might (hopefully) be a little quicker when we come back online.

Here’s to system migrations!

Thanks for your patience while the work is done.

We tried to think of something to blog about from the budget but the biscuit eating chef was much more interesting.. Well, we thought so.

Today, the metro had the story of Andrew Foster who has a fear of food and only eats biscuits. The 27-year-old regularly munches his favourite biscuit, Tunnock’s Caramel Wafers.

He said: “I used to get through two packets of biscuits a day. When I was 18 months old, I stopped eating. Experts advised my mum to starve me as I’d eventually eat, but the only thing I’d want was biscuits.”

Talking about his job as a chef. “I’d think, “That smells delicious”, but the thought of tasting it would make me feel sick.”

We’ve all been wondering, what made him become a chef?

So, I’ve been accosting people in the office, asking them what 3 things they’ll be doing to celebrate our birthday. I’ve picked out a few to share and after you’ve read our random offerings, we’d love to hear what you’ll be doing; you can post below.

Jesper -
Blowing up some balloons
Eating some cake
Eating some more cake

Pedro -
Playing keepy uppy with the balloons
Popping a balloon behind some unlucky victim
Enjoying a birthday drink

Tristan -
Putting on my birthday suit
Eating birthday cake
Taking a moment to appreciate where I work and what we’ve achieved

Tanya -
On the internet to find a nearby bakery
Buying a birthday cake for the office
And raising a glass to all our fantastic users who made something very special happen

Giles -
Trying hard to get us in the media
Taking a quiet moment to reflect on the journey so far, and think of Richard
Buying everyone a drink!

Sarah -
Wearing my party shoes
Doing a cartwheel
Eating cake

Kelley -
Testing the latest release so we can upgrade with some fresh fixes on such a special day
Polishing my best singing voice for the birthday song
Toasting Zopa with the finest of real ales

Aidan -
Updating the Zopa site to make it even better
Wondering where this cake is?
Reminding Giles about those free drinks…

acampbell
andrewguppy
Area13
bandrew
briarcal
bumplump
ctd2005
Delltronic
dusidog
gscas64
importer
kingsgate
liambennett
mzscorpion
PeterGA
pjnfc
scampion
soopersoo
theloaner
wadds
wally2006
zaphodb

Personal favourite ID has to be bumplump! Happy birthday to you all.

First thing we think of is balloons! what do you need if you don’t have a giant canister of helium to blow them all up? You need a Jesper!

Our Jesper took a minute to help create an impressive(!) wall of balloons. He’s having a sit down now to recover…..

It isn’t just us who’s reached the grand age of 3 - today also marks the third birthday of peer-to-peer lending. We were the very first P2P company when we launched in 2005 and now, three years later there are more than 20 around the globe.

A few months ago I mentioned we were hoping to see Zopa in several interesting and rather exotic locations in 2008. Today I am thrilled to announce the formation of Zopa Japan KK, which will be led by Chairman Takeshi Yoneda and CEO Tatsuya Kuboi, both highly experienced and accomplished Internet financial services professionals. We look forward to helping even more people around the world enjoy the big benefits of cutting out the banks by borrowing and lending with other people instead.

The launch of Zopa Japan, along with the US and Italy last year, further strengthens our position as the leader in our field.

With recent average returns for lenders the best they have ever been at 8.1%, with some enjoying more than 10%, social lending has never looked so attractive. Borrowers continue to enjoy personal loan rates normally much lower than they can get from the banks, and despite months of turmoil in the credit markets, our state-of-the-art credit and affordability checks have maintained our remarkably low default rate at less than 0.1%.

Since we launched in March 2005, £20 million in unsecured personal loans have been arranged at Zopa in the UK. More recently growth has been boosted by the global credit crunch which is driving unprecedented demand for P2P personal loans as banks become less competitive and tighten their lending criteria. All of this has also pushed up returns to Zopa lenders to an all time high.

We’ve had a tremendous year. We reached 150,000 members in May, the Guardian named us as one of the “Top 10 dotcoms to watch” in July. October saw the arrival of listings , which has enabled our members to lend and borrow in a brand new way. (Remember we’re offering fee free listings today!) Towards the end of 2007 Zopa launched in the US and Italy. February 08 was our biggest ever month, with lenders enjoying rates of 8.1%. To top off our February nicely, we were listed as one of “the Googles of tomorrow” in an article in The Independent. We’ve also been short-listed for ‘Most Threatening Non-Bank Competitor’ in the 2008 Retail Banker International Awards and for Innovation in the 2008 Efma Retail Finance Awards. We’ll keep you posted on how we do.

With over 190,000 members in the UK alone and the launch of Zopa in 3 more countries, things are looking very exciting indeed for the year ahead.

If you have 3 minutes to spare (seeing as it’s our 3rd birthday..) what 3 words would you use to describe Zopa? You can jot them down below and we’ll be featuring our favourites in our next newsletter.

According to The Independent, we are one of “The Googles of tomorrow”. In an article which appears in the paper today Robert Jones, director of brand consultancy Wolff Olins explains the next generation of brands. “We’re too well-informed and too sceptical to believe in image. What brands have to do in the future is not create a big idea that people buy into, but be useful for people. The days of pure consumerism in the classic economic sense are over. Consumers are also creators, who interact with brands such as YouTube, and who make ethical rather than purely financial decisions when they’re buying things. This is the age of the post-consumer. There’s a French word for it: ‘consommacteur’.”

Giles goes on to explain “We took a practice that has been going on in communities around the world for centuries and created an online opportunity for it. We connect creditworthy borrowers with people who have some money that they would otherwise have used as investment funds or savings. By connecting the two parties directly, rather than via a bank, we can offer significant economic savings… We diversify a lender’s funds by dividing the full amount they want to lend into lots of mini-loans, and every loan a borrower receives is made up of contributions from lots of lenders…. “We’ve probably built a better-performing credit model than anyone else in the country because our bad debts are so minimal – less than 0.1 per cent.”

You can read the full article written by Tim Walker here and if you buy the newspaper, you even get to see a picture of Giles. That’s got to be worth a trip to your local newsagents!

Next time you go into your bank, remember to take some supplies; you could be in there for a while!

“By 2010, social-banking platforms will have captured 10% of the available market for retail lending and financial planning.”



That’s just two years away. Now, we’re very nearly three years old (more on that to come) and in those first three years we’ve seen Social Lending (or Peer to Peer Lending as it’s also referred to) firmly establish itself as a new way to lend and borrow money in many different countries around the world.



Since we launched back in March 2005, we’ve grown substantially in the UK and gone on to launch in Italy and the US. As more and more people realise the potential of Zopa (and other similar companies that have since launched), then that 10% figure seems even more likely to us – especially given the relentless trend towards transparency and the ongoing struggle of the big banks to become so. 



Obviously James over at BankerVision cast some doubt over the prediction (he works at Lloyds TSB !!!) but with encouraging blog posts today from Johnnie Moore and Anthony Mayfield (who also looks at the extent to which Zopa is being talked about over at Money Saving Expert

and predicts a ‘tipping point’ for us soon in the UK) – we’re feeling particularly chuffed and excited today so we thought we’d share that with you. 



Here’s to 2010 and 10%, maybe even more!




“Globe allows its users to send (via SMS) their phone credits or “loads” to others running low. The service costs PHP 1 (about US .024) for each transaction and is available to prepaid and postpaid Globe subscribers. Donors simply contact an automated number, punch in their pin code, the recipient’s number, and how much money they’re giving and both parties are notified upon receipt”.

Our biggest competitor - the banking industry - has just delivered the biggest boost to the Zopa business to date.

Yup, the very people we are trying to cut out to offer borrowers and lenders a better deal have been very busy driving both to us in record numbers.

The banks’ overzealous drive to expose themselves to debt – here or in the sub-prime markets of the USA – has caused the credit crisis and even led to a run on a British bank. Stock markets have been plummeting around the world and much of it is due to the scale of the banks’ mistakes.

So private investors, nervous of further falls are busy trying to find a more secure home for the money they are withdrawing from equities. A greater number than ever before are coming to Zopa because here they can get virtually risk free returns of 7% to more than 10%.

And because banks are desperate to find every way they can to recoup the losses they have suffered, they are putting up the rates they charge on loans and credit cards. This is making loans at Zopa look even cheaper than they normally do. So an increasing number of borrowers are flocking to Zopa to get the better personal loan rates we have on offer.

Having our major competitors driving up the number of both borrowers and lenders that come to us has just led to our best January ever. Sometimes, in the rather weird world we are now living, help comes from the most unlikely sources.

Unfortunately, due to teething problems with the software and good old human error, repayments which are usually requested in pence, were requested in pounds.

The error was soon spotted and we quickly sent a communication to the affected borrowers’ banks canceling the repayment. For any borrowers who did become liable for charges because of this mistake, we have instructed the banks to remove the charges upon the borrower, as this was clearly an error at our end. All affected borrowers have been contacted directly with an email letting them know what to do.

Please do get in touch with us if this payment is collected or if you have any questions whatsoever.

This week, we were doing some new analysis on our customers (we always want to understand how we can better meet our users’ needs). And we discovered some amazing proof.

It turns out that scores of people have recently taken out an unsecured loan with us even though they work in a bank. Yes, lots and lots of folks, who are sometimes even entitled to get a staff discount on their employers’ own loan products, have found that Zopa loans are still the best deal.

Here is just one quote from a borrower.

‘I am full time employment with HSBC. Staff loan rates not as good as Zopa !!

I prefer to have an ‘open’ payback method, to allow me to pay extra monthly payments to my bills when I have the spare cash to do so…

And found banks just want a fixed monthly payment.

I like the concept of Zopa because it feels like I am entering a contract on an equal basis. I do not have that feeling when dealing with a bank or building society. I appreciate the ability to repay early because circumstances can change.

I just think this Zopa thing is a fabulous idea, everybody wins, people get higher rates for their investments and lower rates for their borrowing and we cut out the banks-it’s a superb idea!’

Amidst all the serious stuff, we’ve also somehow found the time to create our own Facebook application. Called People Like You, it lets you compare your personality with other people, and shows you the people we know are like you. Simple really. And who knows, you may even find some interesting people like you to poke?! It might not help you get a loan as it’s really just a bit of fun, but if it helps more people discover Zopa and reap the benefits of peer to peer lending then all the better we think.

Whilst we’re on the subject, remember we also have an ‘official’ Facebook group and we’re thinking about setting up our own Page so you can help spread the word about Zopa. Then we’ll have real fans and everything.

Finally, a quick apology. We have been rubbish at keeping this blog updated when we’re busy. Noted and in hand so do get in touch if you think there’s anything you’d like us to post about.

Right, back to that serious stuff . . more on that soon.

That is all.

So this week we’re launching in two new countries. In the United States, we’re launching a product that’s really new and different. And in Italy, we’re launching with a product that will be familiar to any member of Zopa UK. But even in the UK we’ve been changing - we launched Zopa Listings a month ago, and it’s going gangbusters!

Different countries, different products, same Zopa values. It’s a pattern you can expect from us going forward, as we adjust the Zopa idea for different regulatory and cultural contexts around the globe. (For example, in the US, we wanted to tap into the phenomenon of charitable giving, which is nearly $300B a year.)

Money has a long history of being a bad thing. With Zopa, we are going to change that. That’s why say we’re “making money human again”. And that doesn’t just mean the pound, either. But all around the world.