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Hi, I'm William. I'm the Director, Online Banking & Engagement at Vancity, Canada's largest credit union.

My opinions and views are just that, and don't reflect the views of my employer (or, perhaps, anyone else).

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IOU Central is Canada's first social lending platform.

For all my interest and excitement about social lending, I have not been able to use a social lending platform because there wasn't one available in Canada. Then, this morning, I read on NetBanker that IOU Central has launched, making them first out of the gate for Canadians.

I had heard that there was a group in Quebec working on this, but I had assumed my friend Colin Henderson would be first out to market with CommunityLend, which is launching early this year.

I'll give IOU Central a try and report what I find. As I've written before, my main question, one that is about to be answered, is: will Canadians who love to hate their five main national banks engage in social lending, or will we complain but stay put?

Interesting times...

Labels: communitylend, innovation, iou central, netbanker, social lending

posted on Wednesday, February 13, 2008

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6 comments
Sweet.... since you need to test this out, wanna loan me 500 bucks?
comment from Tiven on February 13, 2008

Thanks for the comment William. As the article mentioned, at CommunityLend we have chosen a path based on what we understand is required to operate as a P2P Lender in Canada. That path which is based on the advice we have operated on for the last 8 months over the last few months, is designed to provide this innovative business with what we believe is needed to protect lenders and borrowers.
comment from

Colin on February 13, 2008

Hi Colin. You're referring to this article in the Toronto Star.

Thanks for commenting. Protecting the people who borrow or lend on your platform is essential to trust, and trust is essential to your success as a business. That will be an interesting situation, should one of the social lending platforms be found in violation of regulations or at very least best practices.
comment from

wazaroff on February 13, 2008

@Tiven - I'd take you up on that, but you're not a resident of Canada. Your loss (in so many ways).
comment from

wazaroff on February 13, 2008

At IOU Central protecting the security and privacy of lenders and borrowers and abiding by all applicable rules and regulations is of paramount importance. We have been advised by one of Canada’s largest law firms to that effect.
comment from

sam on February 14, 2008

Hi Sam, thanks for the comment. I'll be trying out your platform in the next few days and document the experience.
comment from

wazaroff on February 14, 2008

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