Prosper Marketplace, Lending Club and other peer-to-peer lending companies received encouraging news from a new Gartner study this week indicating that the peer-to-peer lending industry would grow to $5 billion worldwide during the next three years.
Both Prosper Marketplace and Lending Club have seen significant growth in the amount of loans they are originating on a monthly basis after getting past legal hurdles from the SEC. Lending Club originated $7.1 million in new loans during the month of December and Prosper Marketplace originated $2.2 during the same period.
To date, Prosper Marketplace has originated $187 million in loans and Lending Club has originated $77 million loans. Prosper and Lending Club currently account for the lion’s share of peer-to-peer lending activity in the United States. Together, they have created just over a quarter of a billion dollars in peer-to-peer loans.
Gartner’s study suggested that traditional financial services providers research how they might be able to integrate the peer-to-peer lending model into their operations as a new means for growth.
Regardless of who ends up being the leader in the peer-to-peer lending industry, it’s here to stay. Investors that have been burned by the equities market are looking to diversify their portfolio and banks are simply unwilling to lend at the levels they have used to. As a result, a perfect vacuum has been created for companies to come in and facilitate lending between borrowers and lenders.
