Zopa membership passes the 200,000 mark

Zopa - the world's first person to person online lending exchange - is pleased to announce that the total number of members has passed the 200,000 milestone.

This news comes as total lending at Zopa has recently topped £23 million, a little more than 3 years after launching in March 2005. Amongst a wide range of other uses, loans at Zopa have so far funded the purchase of 13 boats, more than 2000 cars and motorbikes, 1200 home improvements and 83 weddings.

Since launch, Zopa lenders have enjoyed an average return of 7.3%, and over the last three months a much higher 8.9% (after charges and any bad debt). Given these rates are typically over a three year period and are effectively fixed, Zopa lenders are enjoying better returns than almost all of the best deposit account deals being offered by the banks - and with no strings attached.

Despite the negative impact of the ‘credit crunch', the default rate across Zopa loans has remained at an extremely low 0.02%, reflecting the very responsible approach Zopa takes to lending and the effectiveness of its credit and affordability checking processes. Zopa believes this to be the lowest default rate of any personal loan book in the UK.

Giles Andrews, UK Managing Director and cofounder of Zopa said, "Reaching the 200,000 mark is very satisfying, but given the difficulty so many people in this country are facing when trying to secure a loan at a competitive rate, we know the number could be much, much bigger. As more people get to know about Zopa and the excellent deals that are available by borrowing from other people rather than the banks, we know the number will climb higher and higher."

Zopa is now also live and thriving in other countries around the world, having launched across the USA (us.zopa.com) and in Italy (it.zopa.com) last year. Zopa will also be launching in Japan (jp.zopa.com) in the near future.