TrustBuddy - P2P banking going international
TrustBuddy is a Swedish P2P lending facilitation company that uses in-house developed technology and proprietary mobile-/web-based financing solutions which facilitates smaller short-term loans between private consumers. The company does not lend out its own money, pooled loan-portfolio investors provide funding. TrustBuddy has already reached close to 40,000 registered members in Norway and Sweden, of which more than 20,000 are active customers. The business model is to charge fees on the facilitation process, whereby charges occur throughout the application process, through repayment or debt collection, and through administration fees, collection fees and premium SMS revenues. The business is conducted in the subsidiary, TrustBuddy AB. The parent company, TrustBuddy International AB, is listed on Nasdaq OMX First North.
The online P2P lending market has been in massive growth since 2005. A multitude of providers exist, which all have similar products, both web based, SMS-based and/or MobileApp-based. A few have become international giants (i.e. Prosper.com, Lendingclub.com and Zopa.com), but most are small to medium sized local companies.
The online P2P lending market has been in massive growth since 2005. A multitude of providers exist, which all have similar products, both web based, SMS-based and/or MobileApp-based. A few have become international giants (i.e. Prosper.com, Lendingclub.com and Zopa.com), but most are small to medium sized local companies.
TrustBuddy owns its proprietary software, websites and brands. The main customerinterface is two-way communication software, linking TrustBuddy’s CRM-systems, customer databases, credit checks and payments. The software is using an open MSbased interface. The software receives the loan applications by SMS, determining and checking the client for personal credentials through the BankID system, checking creditworthiness with the linked third-party credit-check, and cross-referencing the information, before declining or issuing loans. There are no physical offices available to the public, and the transactions TrustBuddy facilitate are not human-labor intensive, so launches in new countries is basically a matter of technology and local licensing.
TrustBuddy is online in Sweden, Norway and Slovenia. In December 2011, TrustBuddy will go online in Denmark and Finland and in 2012, TrustBuddy will go online in Germany, Spain, England, Netherlands and Austria.