Small business lending slack being picked up by P2P lenders

With small business lending in peril, peer-to-peer (P2P) lenders have stepped up to fund the real engine of job growth in our country.

P2P lending is a way to cut the banks out of the equation that allows people to go online to borrow or lend money directly to each other. Prosper.com is the granddaddy in the field, but LendingClub.com has been growing nicely in recent times too.

The recent growth is a definite reversal from where the P2P industry started. The Wall Street Journal reports Prosper did such a bad job of underwriting risk during their first three years that one in five loans went bad. Today, it's more like 3%, which is right in line with typical bank-vetted borrowing. LendingClub, meanwhile, rejects 90% of loan applicants now!

You get your money fast once you pass underwriting with both Prosper and LendingClub. There's no waiting as you might with traditional banks that take forever to underwrite a loan.

Prosper has more than 1 million members and has helped arrange more than a quarter billion dollars in lending. They tout investor returns of around 10%, while borrowers can borrow at fixed rates from 6.59% to 35.84% APR, according to their website. LendingClub, meanwhile, has funded $435,000,000 in loans, with returns of around 9% and borrowing starting at fixed rates from 6.78% to 27.99% APR.

If you have an entrepreneurial idea you need to get off the ground, or you need to grow your existing small business, check these sites out!