Prosper Surges Past the Billion Mark

One of the leading US p2p lending platforms has now careered past the billion-dollar mark in personal loans.

Prosper, second only to Lending Club in terms on volume, reached the milestone on the back of a particularly strong performance through March. The platform announced $77.3 million in loan originations last month – its biggest month yet. Prosper advanced $357m in loans in 2013 – a 133% increase on the 2012 figure. More than 93,000 borrowers and over 75,000 individual lenders have made use of the platform to date.

Aaron Vermut, CEO of Prosper, commented:

“We’ve seen an incredible spike this year in peer-to-peer lending and interest in the space, but there are still millions of Americans who don’t know how easy it is to get a loan through Prosper that can help them start a small business, refinance a high-interest credit card or fund a large purchase or project.

“This awareness presents a huge opportunity for us in 2014. We’re on track to see even more unprecedented growth – both at Prosper and across the entire industry.”

Speed and convenience are among the key selling points of the Prosper service. Over half the loans on the platform are funded within two days of a borrower beginning the application process. Rates and loan options can be assessed in seconds without impacting a person’s credit score. Borrowers can apply to the online service at anytime, day or night – and get their FICO score for free as part of the application service.