{"id":37581,"date":"2013-05-13T01:45:37","date_gmt":"2013-05-12T23:45:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=37581"},"modified":"2013-05-13T09:20:13","modified_gmt":"2013-05-13T07:20:13","slug":"sa-social-lender-rainfin-admits-teething-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/37581\/sa-social-lender-rainfin-admits-teething-problems\/","title":{"rendered":"SA social lender RainFin admits teething problems"},"content":{"rendered":"

Peer-to-peer lending company\u00a0RainFin<\/a>\u00a0says it continues to modify its approach as it closes in on its one year anniversary since launching in July 2012.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are up and running, learning and modifying our approach as we go,\u201d said CEO and founder of RainFin, Sean Emery<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Peer-to-peer lending, also known as person-to-person lending or social lending, is a type of financial transaction which occurs directly between individuals or \u201cpeers\u201d without the intermediation of a traditional financial institution.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have modified our approach to now appeal more to individuals who are not being targeted by the traditional banks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are building closed peer-2-peer communities which is proving very successful in pilots,\u201d Emery said.<\/p>\n

In these pilots, the group has created a private marketplace for a group of people with a common link, namely small companies supplying a common big buyer.<\/p>\n

Under the RainFin business model, any South African resident over 18 can borrow and lend through the company. After passing a strict credit vetting process, borrowers can apply in the marketplace for loans of between R1,000 and R75,000 with a maximum repayment period of one year.<\/p>\n

Individual lenders can invest between R100 and R500,000 across a portfolio of RainFin loans. Borrowers can specify the loan amount, the maximum interest they are willing to pay and the loan duration up to a year.<\/p>\n

\"Sean<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAs our criteria for allowing loans in to public marketplace are quite high we are seeing less individuals pass these criteria,\u201d Emery admitted.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we modified the criteria to now allow individuals without payslips into the environment, but they have to have small businesses (with valid registration documents), be self-employed professionals (with associations) and have a good high individual credit score.\u201d<\/p>\n

Borrowers:<\/p>\n