I'm surprised they didn't mention www.Kiva.org, although the model is slightly different, we've also been pretty involved in small business loans in the U.S. an

I'm surprised they didn't mention www.Kiva.org, although the model is slightly different, we've also been pretty involved in small business loans in the U.S. and the numbers continue to grow. I had the pleasure of sitting in the other day on an investment committee discussing risk of small business loans via a new partner in New Orleans and the depth of detail of the risk assessment was striking. This is perhaps why we've managed to keep overall default rates fairly low, which makes me wonder if Prosper is really just figuring out the right risk strategy this time around.