This paper studies peer-to-peer (p2p) lending on the Internet. Prosper.com, the first p2p lending website in the US, matches individual lenders and borrowers for unsecured consumer loans. Using transaction data from June 1, 2006 to July 31, 2008, we examine what information problems exist on Prosper and whether social networks help alleviate the information problems. As we expect, data identifi...

Copyright (1994) This paper places a new interpretation on the traditional evolutionary account of money and banking institutions. This allows the development of a new conceptual framework for a monetary model called the Loans Standard. The Loans Standard has an institutional structure that minimizes the transaction costs of using exchange credit (i.e. money). Developments within the existing s...

The failure or success of the banking industry depends largely on the industry’s ability to properly evaluate credit risk. In the consumer-lending context, the bank’s goal is to maximize income by issuing as many good loans to consumers as possible while avoiding losses associated with bad loans. Mistakes could severely affect profits because the losses associated with one bad loan may undermin...

Student loans and credit card loans represent important components of young households’ portfolios in the United States. While default rates on credit card debt are at historically low levels, default rates on student loans have increased significantly in recent years. There are important institutional differences between bankruptcy arrangements and default consequences in the two markets, whic...

*The ideas expressed here do not represent the opinions of the Board of Governors of the Federal System, or its staff. Part of this project was developed, and much of the early data collected, with Mikari Kashima at the Bank of Japan.

This paper studies TRAIL, a variation on traditional microfinance, where a microfinance institution appoints local intermediaries (traders or informal moneylenders) as agents to recommend borrowers for individual liability loans. Agents earn commissions that depend on loan repayments. There are no peer monitoring, group meetings or savings requirements. The loans are designed to finance agricul...

The paper examines a wide range of issues relating to the mix between loans and grants as well as the degree of concessionality of loans. A number of empirical tests are carried out based on annual panel data over 1970 to 1999 for 22 donor countries and 72 recipient countries. Based on the tests, we are able to identify a number of economic and political factors that have influenced donors’ pas...

In Hong Kong, 35% of residential mortgage loans are adjustable rate mortgages with variable tenor (VRT). That is, with a change in interest rates, the loan adjusts its maturity and principal payment such that the monthly installment remains the same. In other words, instead of bearing a volatility on monthly payments as in a ®xed-tenor variable payment (VRP) mortgage, VRT mortgagors bear intere...