SAN FRANCISCO -
While the long-term vision is that other credit unions will join the Zopa partnership, Zopa's Wade Lagrone said he was confident the company will be able to accommodate anyone who should log onto www.zopa.com through one of the current six partner credit unions.
One reason for that confidence: Zopa is aiming for a relatively quiet, targeted roll-out, which should mean that most of the people who learn about Zopa already are members of one of the six CUs or are eligible to join one of the six.
Another reason: at least one of the partner credit unions is able to cast a very wide net. Part of Addison Avenue CU's field of membership, for instance, includes the Financial Fitness Association, and anyone who joins that association can also join Addison Avenue (Addison Avenue is not the only credit union using this technique-members of Financial Fitness Association are also eligible to join Spectrum CU, which is not currently a Zopa partner).
Are the six Zopa credit unions concerned that banks - always in the market for a way to criticize credit unions and call the tax exemption into question-might latch onto this question of field of membership eligibility? "We acknowledge that some attention could be directed our way in that regard," said Provident CU EVP Jim Ernest.
"It seems [bankers] will always jump to anything they can latch onto, so there is a little risk of that," added Doug Sharkey, FORUM CU's VP-lending.
But the bottom line, the credit unions agreed, is that nothing they are doing should be called into question by the bankers or anyone else, particularly since the NCUA was involved in discussions about the Zopa partnership early on and has given its blessing.
FOR MORE RESOURCES
Read more about Zopa and peer-to-peer lending at cujournal.com and search the following bolded terms in the archive:
Peer To Peer, P2P, Zopa or ZOPA
For info on this story:
* www.zopa.com
