人人贷方兴未艾

    笔者第一次写到“人人贷”（Peer to Peer lending）是在2007年，当时它就像其他很多社交网络一样，只是一个实验性的新兴模式。当时，Prosper、Lending Club这样的公司开始跳过传统银行这个中介，邀请个人在类似于Facebook的平台上提供、获取小额贷款。

    五年后，人人贷的时代来了。这一新兴行业度过了2008年的金融危机，跨越了无数监管难题，如今已成为个人和机构投资者值得信赖的选择。人们既可以藉此获得不错的资金收益，也可以为信用评分高的借款人提供价格较低的融资。本周，随着著名经济学家、哈佛大学（Harvard University）名誉校长劳伦斯•萨默斯加盟美国最大的人人贷公司Lending Club的董事会，总部位于旧金山的这家公司声誉得到进一步提升。“我们推出了一系列针对大机构的金融创新，”他告诉我。“我认为，关注创新，满足消费者的需求也很重要。”

    除萨默斯外，Lending Club的董事会中还有著名风投公司凯鹏华盈（Kleiner Perkins）的玛丽•米克和前摩根士丹利（Morgan Stanley）CEO约翰•麦克。但如今的Lending Club已经不再需要借助名人来赢得关注。这家公司每个月平均发放贷款8,200万美元，迄今累计发放贷款总额已超过10亿美元。公司共同创始人兼CEO罗纳德•拉普朗什早年做过证券律师，后来转型成为科技创业家。最近，他表示，公司计划在未来18个月内进行IPO。

    该公司的主要竞争对手是位于旧金山的Prosper.com，后者累计发放贷款为4.3亿美元。Prosper是第一个吃螃蟹的人，但在2009年，由于美国证券交易委员会（SEC）对其贷款产品是否应被归为证券展开了调查，导致公司不得不暂停营业6个月；这件事影响了Prosper的发展势头，但并没有让这家公司从此一蹶不振。如今该平台由Drugstore.com前CEO唐恩•莱伯雷掌管，每月平均发放贷款1,450万美元，迄今已经累计发放贷款4.35亿美元。

    两个平台上的大多数借款人都拥有高信用评分（平均分为710-715），希望将信用卡借款、汽车贷款和其他类似的贷款进行整合。他们可以申请3年或5年贷款，贷款利率比信用卡利率低得多。Lending Club上约有10%的借款申请会被接受。

    贷方由个人和机构投资者组成，它们可以在被接受的贷款申请中选择投资；大多数投资者会将投资资金分散到几十笔贷款中，降低违约风险。（约有5%的借款人违约，具体取决于贷方承担的风险高低。）由于两个平台都拥有活跃的二级交易市场，贷方随时可以将投资变现。

    Prosper号称过去三年投资者的平均回报率为10%，而拉普朗什告诉我，目前Lending Club的投资者平均回报率为9%。有一个缺点是：人人贷并没有覆盖美国所有的州，因为各个州都有自己的投资和证券法律以及不同的投资规定。目前，投资者可以在美国28个州使用这些平台。

    人人贷平台最初是始于个人投资者，希望藉此实现人与人之间的互助。如今Lending Club上近一半的投资都是由养老基金、投资经理和其他机构投资者运作的。拉普朗什预计，随着公司进一步发展，这一比例将升至70%。

    The first time I wrote about peer-to-peer lending was back in 2007, when, like most other forms of social networking, it seemed like a novel experiment. Companies like Prosper and Lending Club were attempting to disintermediate the traditional banks by inviting individuals to request and make small loans on Facebook-like platforms.

    Five years later, peer-to-peer lending has come of age. The nascent industry weathered the 2008 financial meltdown and myriad regulatory issues to become a credible alternative for retail and institutional investors alike looking to make decent returns off their investments as well as a cheaper option for borrowers with high credit scores. And this week, the largest of these companies, San Francisco-based Lending Club saw its credibility rise when the preeminent economist Lawrence Summers, President Emeritus of Harvard University, joined the board. "We've had a wave of financial innovation directed at large institutions," he told me. "I think it's important also to focus on innovation that meets the needs of consumers."

    Summers joins Kleiner Perkins' Mary Meeker and former Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack. But Lending Club doesn't need big names to gain attention at this point. The company issues an average $82 million in loans monthly, and it has now issued more than $1 billion in total loans. Cofounder and CEO Renaud Laplanche, a securities lawyer-turned-tech entrepreneur, recently said he plans an initial public offering within the next 18 months.

    The company's major competitor is San Francisco-based Prosper.com, a similar platform that has issued $430 million in loans so far. Prosper was first to market, but had to close up shop for 6 months in 2009 while the SEC looked into whether its loans should be classified as securities; the pause hurt Prosper's momentum, but it didn't take the business down. Now run by former Drugstore.com CEO Dawn Lepore, the platform issues an average $14.5 million monthly in loans and has issued $435 million in total loans.

    Most of the borrowers on both platforms are people with high credit scores -- the average is 710-715 -- who plan to consolidate debt from credit cards, car loans and the like. They can request three or five-year loans with more moderate interest rates than they are likely to find on credit cards. About 10% of the loan requests on Lending Club are accepted.

    The lenders are a mix of retail and institutional investors who can choose from among the accepted loan requests to invest; most spread their investments out over dozens of loans to protect themselves against default. (Around 5% of borrowers default, depending upon the amount of risk lenders sign up for.) Because each platform has an active secondary trading market, lenders can trade their investments to liquidate their stakes at any point.

    Prosper boasts that investors have seen an average 10% return over the past three years while Laplanche tells me Lending Club investors currently see an average 9% return. One drawback: Peer-to-peer lending is not yet available in every state as each has its own laws about investments and securities as well as its rules about investing. Right now, investors can use these platforms in 28 states.

    Though peer-to-peer lending began as an exercise for retail investors, in which one person could literally help out another, about half of Lending Club's investments are made by pension funds, money managers and other institutional investors these days. Laplanche estimates the figure will rise to 70% as the company grows.