Peer-to-peer lending
P2P借贷
Banking without banks
不需要银行的银行业务
By offering both borrowers and lenders a better deal, websites that put the two together are challenging retail banks
通过将借款人和出借方联系起来并提供更好的收益，网络借贷平台对传统银行提出了挑战
Mar 1st 2014 | From the print edition
SAVERS have never had a worse deal but for most borrowers, credit is scarce and costly. That seeming paradox attracts new businesses free of the bad balance sheets, high costs and dreadful reputations which burden most conventional banks.
储户存款收益低得前所未有，而贷款利率过高，机会又少。这种貌似存在的矛盾现象就吸引了那些没有坏账、没有高额成本也没有不良信誉的新型企业，它们的存在让传统银行倍感压力。
Foremost among the newcomers are peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms, which match borrowers and lenders directly, usually via online auctions. The loans issued often comprise many tiny slivers from different lenders. Some P2P platforms slice, dice and package the loans; others allow lenders to pick them. Either way, the result is a strikingly better deal for both sides. Zopa, a British P2P platform, offers 4.9% to lenders (most bank accounts pay nothing) and typically charges 5.6% on a personal loan (which is competitive with the rates most banks charge).
这些新型企业中最重要的就是人人借贷平台，它们通常以在线拍卖的方式将贷款人和放款人直接匹配。发放的贷款通常包括来自不同出借人的许多小额款项。有些人人借贷平台会切割、划分和打包款项，也有些允许放款人自己选择。这两种方式的结果对贷款人和放款人双方都是非常有益的。Zopa是一家英国的人人借贷平台，它给予放款人4.9%的收益（大多数银行账户是毫无收益的），个人贷款一般要收取5.6%的收益（这一点相比于大多数银行收取的利率更有竞争力）。
Elsewhere, returns (and risks) are higher. IsePankur, which lends to more than 60,000 people in four euro-zone countries, pays its lenders (who include your correspondent) a stonking 21.45% average net return (after a 3% default rate). Its typical borrowers do not flinch at rates of up to 28%: they are refinancing far costlier credit-card debt and doorstep loans.
Zopa之外的其他企业的收益（和风险）更高。Isepankur的业务范围涵盖四个欧元区国界的6万多名用户，它支付给放款人（包括你的信息提供人）高达年均净收入的21.45%的收益（除去3%的违约率）。通常它的贷款人并不会被高达28%的利率吓倒：他们会征收更高额的信用卡债务和兜售贷款再融资。
Peer-to-peer lending is growing fast in many countries. In Britain, loan volumes are doubling every six months. They have just passed the £1 billion mark ($1.7 billion), though this is tiny against the country’s £1.2 trillion in retail deposits. In America, the two largest P2P lenders, Lending Club and Prosper, have 98% of the market. They issued $2.4 billion in loans in 2013, up from $871m in 2012. The minnows are doing even better, though they are growing from a much lower base.
在许多国家人人贷正迅速发展。在英国，人人贷的贷款总额每半年就翻一番。它们已经突破了10亿英镑（合17亿美元）的大关，虽然这还远远比不上全国12万亿的小额零星存款。在美国，两家最大的人人借贷平台——Lending Club和Prosper——拥有98%的市场份额。2013年两家共发放了24亿美元的贷款，而2012年仅仅是8.71亿美元。而其它小型人人贷企业虽然起点低，但发展态势更好。
Neil Bindoff of PwC, a professional-services firm, speaks of a “perfect storm” supporting P2P’s growth. Interest rates are close to zero, the public is fed up with banks, costs are low (one third of a typical bank’s, according to Renaud Laplanche of Lending Club), and e-commerce is becoming part of daily life. People use the internet for peer-to-peer telephony (Skype) and shopping (eBay), so why not loans?
专业服务公司普华永道的尼尔宾多夫支持人人贷的发展，并称其为“完美风暴”。大众已经对利率几近为零的银行感到厌烦，而花费低（据Lending Club的l雷诺德拉普朗什，花费仅为传统银行的三分之一）的电子商务正逐渐成为日常生活的一部分。人们可以直接用网络打电话（Skype)和购物（eBay)，为什么就不可以直接用网络来贷款呢？
Awareness is still low—a survey by pwc found only 15% of Britons claimed to have heard of the big P2P firms such as Zopa, Funding Circle and RateSetter; 98% had heard of the main banks. Another hurdle in Britain is that P2P is not fully regulated; that will change on April 1st. The Financial Conduct Authority will issue the new rules imminently. In America, people saving for retirement can apply tax breaks to their loans, and offset their losses against profits. Britain’s P2P industry is awaiting a decision to extend tax-free savings schemes to its lenders.
但是大众对这种贷款方式的认知还是很低的。毕马威的一项调查显示只有15%的英国人声称听说过诸如Zopa、Funding Circle和RateSetter这样的人人贷平台的存在，而知道几家主要银行的人却达到了98%。另一阻碍英国人人贷发展的障碍是此行业尚无完备的规范，这一问题将在4月1日得到解决。金融市场行为监管局很快将发布新的法规。在美国，存退休基金的人可以在贷款时使用税额优惠，平衡收益损失。英国的人人贷产业正在等待下达其放款人可以享受免税存储计划的决议。
Regulation to the rescue
法律法规要发挥补救作用
Regulation should help forestall a big worry: that an ill-run platform might collapse, taking investors’ money with it. At a conference organised by the P2P Finance Association, a trade body, this week, executives were worried about the risks of a “Bitcoin-style bust” that could rattle confidence in the nascent industry. New rules are likely to insist that P2P businesses ringfence unlent funds gathered from savers and arrange for third parties to manage outstanding loans if they cease trading.
制定相关法律法规要有助于提前遏止以下一种重大问题：经营不善的人人贷平台或许会垮台，并卷走投资人的钱。本周在一家贸易机构——人人贷金融协会——举办的会议上，成员们表示很担心这一新兴产业会出现挫败信心的“比特币式的破产”。新法规很可能会坚持人人贷企业必须限制从储户手里积累的未借出基金的使用，并且在交易停止的时候会安排第三方来管理未偿贷款。
Other big questions abound. One is insurance. Funds placed with P2P lenders are not covered by the state-backed guarantees that protect retail deposits in banks. Some platforms offer something of a substitute. Zopa and most other British companies have started “provision funds”, which aim (but do not promise) to make good on loans that sour. These smooth the risk for lenders, but blunt the original P2P concept. So too does insurance: Ron Suber of Prosper, America’s second-biggest lender, says “deep actuarial conversations” are going on with outsiders who would like to help lenders provide for the risk that their borrower defaults, dies, or loses his job. Purists fear such arrangements could recreate the moral hazard that has plagued conventional banking.
此外还存在许多其它重大问题，其中之一就是保险问题。人人贷出借人所持基金并没有受到像银行小额零星存款一样的来自国家的保障。有些人人贷平台提供一种替代品。Zopa以及其它英国人人贷公司已经发起了一种“准备基金”，是为了（但并不保证）在贷款变坏时提供补救。这就为放款人减少了风险，但是并不是很符合人人贷最初的理念。保险也存在相同的问题。美国第二大人人贷平台Prosper的罗恩苏博表示他们正在与业外人士展开”深刻的精算般的谈话“，这些人愿意帮助放款人在贷款人出现违约、死亡或失业等风险前做准备。完美主义者担心这种做法很可能会再次产生蔓延传统银行的道德危机问题。
The boom in cross-border P2P raises tricky legal questions. The European Commission has yet to get to grips with the industry. National rules often determine how credit is issued and debts are collected. But they offer little help when the money comes from hundreds of lenders in dozens of countries. Yield-chasing foreigners, private and institutional, are investing heavily in the American market.
跨境人人贷的繁荣对立法问题提出了严峻的考验。欧盟委员会还没有开始处理这一产业的问题。而各国的法律也只对如何发行贷款和收集债务做出了规定。但是如果资金来源是几十个不同国家的成百上千个放款人，这种法律能发挥的作用就很少了。追逐利益者，无论是以个人还是组织的形式，正大肆投资美国市场。
Only a third of the money coming to Lending Club is now from retail investors: the rest (the fastest-growing slice) comes from rich people and institutions. Should such big investors get a better deal—such as getting their pick of the best loans on offer? In Britain, Giles Andrews of Zopa regards the idea as anathema: all savers should be treated equally. Some others think big lenders will eventually dominate P2P.
现在Lengding Club的资金中只有三分之一来源于散户投资者，其它的（也是增长最快的）则来自于有钱的个人或机构。那么这种大投资者是否应该得到更大收益——比如说得到最好的贷款呢？英国Zopa的贾尔斯安德鲁斯认为这是一种可耻的想法，所有的储户都应该一视同仁。也有人认为放款大户会最终控制人人贷。
P2P also ends the dangerous mismatch between short-term deposits and long-term loans inherent in conventional banking—but generally by locking lenders in for the loan’s duration. A secondary market in P2P loans is developing fast. This allows investors to get their money back if they need it, usually by selling the loans at a discount. But rules vary: some platforms will buy back the loans; others just hold an auction.
人人贷也消除了传统银行固有的短期存款和长期贷款的不匹配问题——但是通常的做法就是在贷款期内绑住放款人。人人贷二级市场正迅速发展。这就使得投资人在需要钱时可以将其收回，通常采用折价出售贷款的方式。但是规则也不尽相同：有些平台可以买回贷款，而其它的就只能通过拍卖。
P2P is not complicated: success largely depends on marketing oomph, the quality of the algorithms used to screen borrowers and ease of use (P2P platforms are scrambling to develop apps for smartphones and tablets). P2P may attract big outsiders, such as banks, or internet companies which already have lots of data about their customers and (like Facebook) are good at connecting them. Google last year led a $125m investment in Lending Club, valuing it at $1.55 billion. It might well want more.
人人贷并不复杂：成功与否很大程度上取决于市场态势以及用于筛选贷款人的算法的质量和使用方便程度（人人贷正在努力开发供智能手机和平板电脑使用的应用程序）。人人贷很可能吸引业外机构，比如银行和互联网企业，因为后者已经拥有大量客户数据并（像脸书）擅长将它们连结。谷歌对Lending Club估值为15.5亿美元，去年向其投资1.25亿美元，谷歌很有可能想要更多。
**普华永道的尼尔宾多夫支持人人贷的发展，并称其为“完美风暴”。大众已经对利率几近为零的银行感到厌烦，而花费低（据Lending Club的l雷诺德拉普朗什，花费仅为传统银行的三分之一）的电子商务正逐渐成为日常生活的一部分。人们可以直接用网络打电话（Skype)和购物（eBay)，为什么就不可以用网络贷款？
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