According to an in-depth study by the Social Futures Observatory, anti-bank feeling is running so high in the UK that 74% of Brits would consider borrowing or lending money through a social lending community in preference to their high street bank.
In the ultimate case of old concept finds new medium, the process of person-to-person money lending is as old as the hills but traditionally has been restricted to very small, localized and close-knit private social groups. The Internet, and particularly the social networking side of Web 2.0 services, is facilitating a sea change in how people form circles of trust and as a result social lending is fast emerging a genuinely important new online financial phenomena.
The study determined that the aspects of control, community and individual entrepreneurialism, or minipreneurs as they have been named, together with the second wave of the Internet with Web 2.0 is driving a re-emergence of person-to-person money lending schemes at the expense of the high street banks.