In response to Charis post, I would be more inclined to think that the credit bureau system down under precisely supports P2P lending, particularly with the Prosper model. Prosper is in essence eBay for loans, so its focussed on the reputational value of members, and the community advice, groups etc to ensure loans losses are minimised. Lack of adequate Bureau reporting would provide an additional competitive advantage P2P lending.

This might be a hindrance for Zopa, who take on the risk assessment on behalf of their members. Lack of positive information, would require them to rethink their approach used in the UK.

I would add that other sites, such as Wesabe, who promote sound financial planning, and budgetting would particularly work well in this environment.  I see Wesabe as a powerful example of an adjunct to P2P lending, and the environment where bureau reporting is lacking makes an interesting opportunity.

So will we see an equivalent model get up in Australia? It seems unlikely given we have a vastly different credit reporting environment to that which exists in the US and UK. Firstly the Australian market is dominated by two credit bureaus – Baycorp Advantage and Dun & Bradstreet.

Source: The Better Banking Blog: Peer-to-peer lending in Australia?

<Whine> about Blogger.  In response to Charis post, I wanted to comment on her blog, but Google’s blogger wouldn’t let me!  It asked if I wanted to log in using my Google ID which I did, but then it still wouldn’t accept a comment.  I love Google, but hate blogger, and especially their comment system, which reminds me of bad telephone IVR/VRU systems, when you get locked into an endless loop. </whine>