Kiva is matching loans for first time donors

Re:Kiva is matching loans for first time donors by kanamekun on Wednesday October 12, 2011 @11:23AM (#3103247)

Kiva has been explicit that covering defaults is no longer allowed:

<< Feb 10, 2010

Going forward, when a Field Partner uploads a loan request, they will no longer be able to choose the option of covering borrower default.

For roughly a year, Kiva allowed its Field Partners the option to cover entrepreneur defaults. This meant that even if an entrepreneur you supported couldn't repay their loan, their Field Partner could opt to pay you back anyway.

Kiva originally decided to offer this option because it was more efficient to manage repayments on an institutional level. But after receiving feedback from you, we’ve realized that Kiva lenders are actually looking for a stronger connection between the lender and the entrepreneur.

Letting lenders take on the risk of a loan allows lenders to tie their loan dollars to the success of the borrowing entrepreneur - providing a connection that’s much more personal.

This change also allows the repayment statistics that we show on Kiva to represent of borrower repayments rather than institutional repayments; giving you a better depth of information to help you choose your loans. >>

http://www.kiva.org/updates/kiva/2010/02/10/update-on-recent...

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Re:Kiva is matching loans for first time donors by waitwhat on Wednesday October 12, 2011 @09:35PM (#3105607)

Thanks for finding that.

However, only 7 out of 128 pilot or active Field Partners report a default rate of more than 1%; indeed, around three-quarters of them report a default rate of 0.00%.

These statistics just don't pass the smell test unless Field Partners are still covering entrepreneur defaults.

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