This new service will offer a more individual and personalized version of peer to peer or ‘Social Lending’. Each Zopa Listing can include photographs and eventually a video, and will tell the borrower’s story in terms of what they want to borrow for and why. The listing will also include all the necessary details like size of loan, over how long, a target interest rate, etc., along with all the information the borrower wants to offer about their circumstances to help lenders decide whether or not to lend to them and at what interest rate.
Giles Andrews, managing director of Zopa UK, said: The launch of Zopa Listings is an exciting new avenue for our members, bringing new levels of individuality and personal control to Social Lending. Zopa Lenders will be able to review all these Listings on the site and then bid on those they want to lend to, showing how much they want to lend and at what interest rate. The process of competitive bidding in this way will make Zopa Listings an equally efficient marketplace as our existing Zopa Markets service, but with even greater levels of personal control and choice.