I don't understand something. Why is there such a big jump in loan originations at the last week?
Not sure. If you look at the daily data for the last several months, you will note a marked increase in origination during the last few days of the month, followed by an anemic amount of originations the following first few days of the next month.
We have heard rumors for years that Prosper would stuff a higher-than-usual amount of loans throught he pipe at the end of each month to make the numbers look better (as you will have noted, Prosper enjoys issuing press releases touting volume growth). There were related rumors that loans originated late in the month were subject to less pre-funding scrutiny than other loans and thus may represent a dispropoptionally higher risk to lenders due to the lack of quality control.
I have, however, yet to see a serious or meaningful analysis of performance of loans originated late in the month vs. average for the month as a whole.
Note that these numbers do NOT refer to loans successfully funding in the auction at any given day of the month, but rather refer to when Prosper releases them from "pending origination."