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[Urbi_et_Orbi]

American Banking News has chimed in:
Prosper Marketplace Announces $2 Million in Bridge Financing as Bankruptcy Fears Loom

That was actually about as balanced of a piece as I have seen from ABN. 

[TotoMMB]

Personally, my favorite tidbit from the blog is "we have strong interest from a number of world class investors."

WTF is a world class investor? I'm sure there are vulture investors and liquidation experts that could fit into this realm. So, that doesn't provide any comfort (to me, at least). Not that I thought this $2M was going to change anything.

Just changed the handover date to 4/1. "Omidyar Lending"? "Meritech P2P"? If there's no more Prosper.com (or it changes names), will we have to move to [NEW NAME]s.org? 

[MatthewDP]

Anyone know when Prosper's next SEC filing where they have to say how much cash they have is due?

[bamalucky]

My redneck math puts this at 75k profit for a 2 month loan

My napkin says $50K profit.

15% apr is 300k right?

Oh snap..nevermind i was doing a 3 month loan

[Urbi_et_Orbi]

However, we will be disciplined in our approach to the risk/return tradeoff, meaning we will grow volume responsibly and steadily.

Are they admitting to an irresponsible approach in the past?

ETA: fix quote box.

[alexpkeaton]

Personally, my favorite tidbit from the blog is "we have strong interest from a number of world class investors."

WWWBD? (What would Warren Buffet do?)

He wouldn't invest in Prosper, that's for sure.

[mothandrust]

My comment passed moderation!

Why borrow at 15%? Couldn’t Prosper offer General Corporate Purpose Notes on the site directly to lenders? They would be safer than lending to AA borrowers (who are getting 4%-8% rates) and there is no risk of borrower default!

[onthefence]

My comment passed moderation!

Why borrow at 15%? Couldn’t Prosper offer General Corporate Purpose Notes on the site directly to lenders? They would be safer than lending to AA borrowers (who are getting 4%-8% rates) and there is no risk of borrower default!

The funny thing is that 15% loan is far safer than any loan now made on prosper.

[bamalucky]

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Concerned | February 3rd, 2010 at 3:46 pm

If Prosper were to go into bankruptcy,can you explain to us lenders what would happen with our notes in regards to these loans?

In other words,would these notes be paid in part or all with lender payments?

[NewHorizon]

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Concerned | February 3rd, 2010 at 3:46 pm

If Prosper were to go into bankruptcy,can you explain to us lenders what would happen with our notes in regards to these loans?

In other words,would these notes be paid in part or all with lender payments?

Took a while, but Prosper responded:

We’ve granted the trustee of our notes (who acts on behalf of the noteholders) a security interest in the payments we receive on borrower loans. This means that, if we filed for bankruptcy, we believe the trustee would be a secured creditor of ours, and that the trustee’s claim on any borrower payments would have priority over the claims of our general creditors. This claim by the trustee would be made on behalf of the noteholders.

As for the servicing of our notes, we’ve entered into an agreement with a loan servicing company under which that company will assume responsibility for servicing our notes if we’re unable to do so. If we filed for bankruptcy, we believe we’d be able to transition the servicing of our notes to this back-up servicer under that agreement.

[bamalucky]

Perhaps thats what they have been working on for the past 2 weeks..  I don't believe it fly's but at least they responded.

[Xenon481]

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Concerned | February 3rd, 2010 at 3:46 pm

If Prosper were to go into bankruptcy,can you explain to us lenders what would happen with our notes in regards to these loans?

In other words,would these notes be paid in part or all with lender payments?

Took a while, but Prosper responded:

We’ve granted the trustee of our notes (who acts on behalf of the noteholders) a security interest in the payments we receive on borrower loans. This means that, if we filed for bankruptcy, we believe the trustee would be a secured creditor of ours, and that the trustee’s claim on any borrower payments would have priority over the claims of our general creditors. This claim by the trustee would be made on behalf of the noteholders.

As for the servicing of our notes, we’ve entered into an agreement with a loan servicing company under which that company will assume responsibility for servicing our notes if we’re unable to do so. If we filed for bankruptcy, we believe we’d be able to transition the servicing of our notes to this back-up servicer under that agreement.

Is any of that covered in the Prospectus or their SEC filings? Such a setup makes a very material difference in the investment risk.

[ira01]

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Concerned | February 3rd, 2010 at 3:46 pm

If Prosper were to go into bankruptcy,can you explain to us lenders what would happen with our notes in regards to these loans?

In other words,would these notes be paid in part or all with lender payments?

Took a while, but Prosper responded:

We’ve granted the trustee of our notes (who acts on behalf of the noteholders) a security interest in the payments we receive on borrower loans. This means that, if we filed for bankruptcy, we believe the trustee would be a secured creditor of ours, and that the trustee’s claim on any borrower payments would have priority over the claims of our general creditors. This claim by the trustee would be made on behalf of the noteholders.

As for the servicing of our notes, we’ve entered into an agreement with a loan servicing company under which that company will assume responsibility for servicing our notes if we’re unable to do so. If we filed for bankruptcy, we believe we’d be able to transition the servicing of our notes to this back-up servicer under that agreement.

Is any of that covered in the Prospectus or their SEC filings? Such a setup makes a very material difference in the investment risk.

IIRC, the Prospectus states something like that but then concludes that Prosper doesn't know whether it will actually have the intended effect. 

[mothandrust]

We’ve granted the trustee of our notes (who acts on behalf of the noteholders) a security interest in the payments we receive on borrower loans.

The Prospectus has similar language, except that it says that Prosper "will grant" the indenture trustee this security interest. 

I would have liked to see "shall grant", but they admit it is uncertain what the holders of the Notes will receive, if anything, and when.

Their response implies that the indenture trustee has already been granted the security interest--as if Prosper were already bankrupt and putting the loans in trust!

[NewHorizon]

I'm still back at wondering who the trustee is, who the loan servicing company is, and are they any healthier than Prosper?