Zopa Abandons Listings
Basically, Zopa had two different forms of lending; markets and listings.
Markets work by lenders getting together to fund loans to borrowers. All is done automatically by the computers and risk assessors in the middle.
Listings are best defined like this.
In a nutshell, they work just like an online auction, except that the ‘price’ comes down instead of going up.
Once a listing becomes 100% funded, you’ll see that the overall interest rate will begin to fall as lenders compete with each other to be included in the loan.
I never used them. And as they weren’t as popular as markets and were quite expensive to administer, Zopa have now dropped them.
A Bendy Bus Takes Early Retirement
The bendy buses on route 73 are going in September, but this one couldn’t wait to retire.
Luckily no-one was hurt and I don’t think anybody except fare dodgers will miss it!
What’s Gone Wrong With Murray?
He won the quarter-final at Wimbledon without any pain.
For us that is, not him!
AXA Takes The Moral Route
AXA has announced that it has decided not accept referral fees from personal injury lawyers.
This good stance may cost them a few millions, but how much extra business will this moral stance gain the company? After all, companies in retail like John Lewis, IKEA and Dixons in my experience lately, have used similar approaches. So why shouldn’t an insurance company attempt to make money by doing the right thing?
Let’s hope other companies do similar things! After all people have limited amounts of disposable income these days, so are they more likely to do businss with a company with a good ethical stance.
Would Any Sane Person Buy Into the Greek Privatisation?
Let’s say you are the CEO of a utility company, which has a good record of managing water supply in say, Britain, France or Germany.
If you were asked to participate in the buy-out of a Greek water company would you be interested? Given the feeling in Greece and the attitudes of the workers to the proposed privatisations to help bail the country out, I think you would probably say no, as you value your health and you don’t want to be fired by the shareholders of your company.
I suspect very few companies will actually get involved in providing the finance, unless the prices are so low. But then if that is the case, Greece will not be able to meet its debts.
So are we back to square one with the Greeks?
No! Square zero maybe or even square minus one!
On the other hand consultancy about the privatisations might be a nice wheeze! But who will pay you, if no-one will provide the finance.
The Anonymous Widower 