I was just told by the Loanio CEO that barring any last second hangup to expect the launch of Loanio today.

I noticed that they have a blog too: Loanio Blog

Good luck Loanio, we have been looking forward to your launch for quite some time…

Other than a brief flirtation with the Draft Gore movement I have stayed away from my political views on RL, but I am afraid I can no longer stay silent. I am an off the deep end libertarian who believes that Clinton proved to be an awesome president (in terms of free will, government staying out of personal life, and fiscal responsibility.) My other political concerns are the environment, trade deficit, our dangerous reliance on foreign oil (boo swift boat campaign but yeah wind, solar, and natural gas as our way out of the problem. I have a love/hate thing with T Boone Pickens), modern copyright law, and privacy rights. (in terms of both privacy and copyright Joe Biden is less than ideal as a VP choice with his support of FBI wire taps and support of the RIAA and MPA, but at least he understands the issue even if I disagree with him… and yes that was a Palin and McCain dig.)

Can you believe that Pennsylvania’s law makers do not believe the citizens of the great state of Pennsylvania have the where with all to do with their money as they see fit (see Prosper Blog post: Lenders residing in PA).

I can barely even imagine someone telling me what I should do with my hard earned money. If I choose to help my fellow American by extending credit to them, why on earth should I not be allowed to? (I don’t believe in protectionism borrowing rates either aka state rate caps, but I think there is at least something to debate on that front.)

Don’t even get me started on how bailing out the greedy PRIVATE corporations (AIG et al) with PUBLIC money only encourages further GREED. (AIG turned down on the table offers prior to the government bailout. Why? They thought they could get a better deal from the government and they were right.)

So what can a Pennsylvania “Lender” do?

1. The most obvious thing is to email, phone, and mail you state legislator and Governor. The PA government needs to know that the citizens of PA think it is ridiculous that they are being told that they cannot invest in their fellow American.
2. A slightly less copacetic way around the problem is to use an alternative address other than you PA address.  Do you have a vacation home?  Maybe Earth Class Mail? 

Please understand, I am not an anarchist and I do not believe in subverting the government. I do believe in fiscal responsibility, individual rights, and the freedom to spend and invest your money as you see fit.

PA get a grip! You are a presidential battle ground state. Do you think your citizens cannot think for themselves and make their own choices?

• Performance Award's Reader's Choice... Vote for Prosper and LazyMan Performancing has announced the Performancing Awards 2007 Reader's Choice Poll Two of the nominees are directly known to me...  I encourage you to vote for them.  The Best Use of a Corporate Blog --> The Official Prosper Blog (RateLadder Says:  Just a little strange since the prosper blog only existed for......

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I have been having an ongoing email conversation with Michael Solomon the CEO of Loanio for quite some time… In fact, he originally bought advertising on this blog over a year ago. While still hesitant to give an exact date, he told me in no uncertain terms that Loanio is in the final stages of preparing for launch and that both “final security audit and legal compliance audit” are the final hurdles to launch and both are wrapping up.

You may recall I mentioned seeing Loanio at Finovate in SF. To me their most interesting feature is the possibility a co-borrower for bad credit borrowers. I am interested in seeing the impact of the co-borrower on the fundability of bad credit loans in the peer to peer marketplace.

Tom at Prosper Lending Review has some screen shots and a writeup about the inside access he was given.

I expect after many delays that this time is for real and I for one am interested to see if the entrance of a Prosper competitor can re-energize the p2p lending space the way Lending Club and Prosper did in early 2008. Competition breeds innovation and innovation is good for consumers. Welcome Loanio I hope your launch is highly successful.

• Loanio Forum P2P No Bank has launched independent forums covering all p2p lending sites -- including Loanio.  Loanio has yet to launch, but is still planning a fall 07 release to the best of my knowledge.  Have better information? Speculation as to what will set Loanio apart from the other p2p lending sites? ......
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• Prosper's People-to-People Lending Market Survey SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Prosper (www.prosper.com), America's largest people-to-people lending marketplace, today introduced its first monthly People-to-People Lending Market Survey. Prosper's People-to-People Lending Market Survey will survey the marketplace each month to provide key statistics including: membership and loan volume statistics; marketplace returns; borrower rates; mix of prime, near prime and sub-prime......
• The Marketplace Survey for April -- More and Better Listing Volume Prosper released the April marketplace survey today... The comentary was from CEO, Chris Larsen. In April, we saw the supply of loan listings with an attractive risk-return tradeoff hit an all time high and approximately double compared to the prior month. At the end of March, the supply of loan......
• Prosper Update Enhances the Legal Enforceability of Promissory Notes There was a Prosper update last night.   Nothing that was completely unexpected... The one thing that struck me as interesting was that borrower's are now required to sign the promissory notes themselves...  Before the process had been that Prosper was authorized to sign on their behalf...  The part that struck......

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http://www.pertuitydirect.com/

Just received the following email…

Welcome To Pertuity Direct

Welcome! Thanks for signing up to receive updates about the Pertuity Direct launch.

We have been hard at work for the last two years, building a social lending business that is targeted toward busy people that would like to enjoy the high investment returns and low loan rates of peer to peer lending, but don’t want to deal with figuring out all of the ins and outs of optimizing the process.

We make social lending hassle free:
For lenders, your investment dollars are deployed and start to earn returns immediately
You get the safety of automatic diversification
If you want to withdraw your money early - not a problem, just a few click to get your money back
Our borrowers are rewarded for working hard to maintain good credit by getting approved and funded quickly with great, low rates
Welcome to social lending without the bidding, gaming or guessing. We handle all the work for you. You get all the benefit.

We are just a few short weeks away from launch and are putting finishing touches on everything so that you will enjoy your experience at Pertuity Direct. So stay tuned, we will be coming to market in September and will keep you in the loop.

The Pertuity Direct Team

• Cutting Out the Banks Recently I was interviewed and featured heavily in an online magazine initial publication: NuWire Investor.  NuWire focuses on alternative investments.  This interview happened during a very brief manual bidding experiment (less than 2 weeks).  I am back to nothing but standing orders. Here are some of my favorite parts of......
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• Prosper Webinars I am wondering if anybody has gone to one for the Prosper Webinars on lending, borrowing money, and group leading. I have been receiving email invitations for several weeks, but I don't see how they would help me.  If you have gone to one of them can you tell me......
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