This is a great concept that already happens offline in many ethnic communities. Totally makes sense to bring it into the light and let people benefit from their offline credit
@bmajz Indeed Bilal! Thanks for pointing this out!
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@_dannybin@bmajz As Bilal mentioned, many ethnic/recent immigrant communities already have this informal "family lending club." Monk can be a great tool for these communities — maybe you could localize it into Chinese, Vietnamese, Spanish and other languages.
@chubert Yes Albert! I couldn't agree more. They are in the works :) Both my co-founder and I are long time participants in these offline groups within the Chinese and Nigerian communities. We will definitely localize our services into all of the languages you just mentioned and more. Thanks for the great comment!
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Hey - loving the concept. Curious into your considerations around the legal implications of peer-to-peer lending? Are there any legal limits?
Also, not checked - which countries are supported?
@rossbeale Hi Ross, thanks for the question! We are currently only live in the US, due to the legal limits you mentioned ;) But we are working on with our legal team to expand to other international markets. As for the legal implications, certainly! We have worked hard and continue to working closely with our legal counsel on obtaining all the appropriate licenses.
Unlike the traditional P2P lending marketplaces, the saving groups on our platform are private and are mostly consisted of friends and family, so when a member borrows money from his/her saving groups, he/she is borrowing money from friends/family, therefore, we have a much much lower default rate, hence much easier for one to underwrite the loan. Hope this answers your question, let me know if you have further questions. Thanks!
I really like this take on P2P lending. I have had the same thought for an app so excited to see where this goes!
Out of curiosity is 3% interest the minimum you need to charge for arms-length borrowing? Will you guys have some sort of ability to export or view the capital gains/losses I have had for when I need to file taxes?
@ekryski Hi Eric, thank you for your great questions! Yes, user will have the ability to see capital gains/losses. We are also planning to provide a tax document to summarize all the gains and interest paid throughout the year. I am confident we will have that by end of the year :)
Regarding the interest question, the 3% is the average interest rate. The effective interest rate will depending on the timing of the borrowing.
For example, for a group of 10 friends, everyone contribute $200 to the group savings each month, so each month, there $2000(10 people X $200) in the pot. Members can borrow that $2000 from the group. The interest on the loan will depend on which month you borrow the money since the inception of the group. Month 1(5%), Month 2(4%), Month 3(3%), Month 4(2%) and etc. Hope this answers your questions. Thanks!
Thanks Tom! Hi Everyone, I am Danny. I'll be around all day to answer any questions you may have. Monk is a mobile bank that enables users to save and borrow in groups among friends and family! Let us know what you think!
@stefanobernardi Hi Stefano, great observation. Puddle and us uses the same underlying mechanism, namely the offline village banking model. I do not want to speak on behave on Puddle, but from our understanding of Puddle and people who are familiar with the company, they are more of a marketplace model, and mainly targets users who wish to borrow money. You put in $100 and borrow $500 right the way.
With Monk, we, first and foremost, are focused on group saving among existing social circles(private groups). So the groups on our platform, in contrast, are consisted of users who already know and trust each other. And many people join Monk groups to save and help friends in need, but by doing so, the group itself becomes a line of credit for them when they need it. So we have a fairly different positioning. I hope this answers your question.
In addition, there are several other differences in terms of the business model, if you are interested, I'd love to discuss it with you offline :)
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