BOSTON -
-Wade Lagrone
The way Wade Lagrone sees it, ZOPA, England's peer-to-peer (or person to person) Internet investing/lending service, is going to sweep a demographic credit unions are much in need of right onto the membership rolls when it comes to the USA.
"We have the same philosophy; it's the same movement, really, and we want to be a brand within the credit union movement," said Lagrone, VP-marketing with San Francisco-based Zopa, in remarks before the Credit Union Journal's Business Development & SEG Conference. Zopa is "growing like hotcakes" in the UK, at 10% per month, all of it organic (referrals, not advertising). We think it's a youth product and our figures prove that out with growth in the right demographic."
ZOPA was new to many of the attendees. It is so-called "social lending." People with money to lend loan it to borrowers using the Internet (zopa.com) as the middleman.
Slaying the old saw that young people are self-centered and indulgent, Lagrone noted that the annual college freshmen survey found high numbers in the willingness to help others category, asserting that young adults are indeed generous, but also want to attain self-sufficiency through the networks they are comfortable with. That's means they take to peer-to-peer lending naturally. "They have a value for sharing," he said.
Many in the audience, skewed to a higher age to be sure, groaned slightly (or remained silent) when Lagrone asked if they would post a video on YouTube. "OK, so this is a big social shift for you, right? The average age of the credit union member today is 47, and this is an age-related comfort level."
In the U.K., no financial institution is involved. But in the U.S. deployment of Zopa, a financial institution is needed, and the company believes credit unions are the ideal partner. It plans to make a related announcement in the coming weeks.
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Reporting By Carol Anne Burger
