Person-to-Person Lending and Credit Score

According to Wall Street Journal, Zopa Ltd., a United Kingdom player in the person-to-person online lending market, is starting operations in the U.S. where it will join a handful of other companies, including Prosper Marketplace Inc.'s Prosper.com, that have popularized the market in recent years.

The way Prosper works like eBay. Instead of listing and bidding on items, people list and bid on loans using Prosper's online auction platform. People who want to borrow on Prosper create loan listings for up to $25,000 and set the maximum rate they are willing to pay a lender. People who register as Prosper lenders set the minimum interest rate they are willing to earn and bid in increments of $50 to $25,000 on loan listings they select. In addition to criteria commonly used by institutional lenders, such as credit scores and histories,

Zopa is taking a slightly different approach by working with several credit unions to offer person-to-person loans to prospective borrowers. Lenders can help borrowers by parking money in Zopa-branded CDs that are used to help fund those loans.

Credit Score

Each Prosper borrower is assigned a grade based on their credit score to help lenders evaluate their risk and the site verifies borrowers' identities. The average rate of return for lenders is 9.28 percent, with lower-grade loans earning 10.45 percent, according to Prosper.

Typically, borrowers on Zoppa need a minimum FICO credit score of 640.