Source: Amy Cortese - The N.Y. Times ( Paid Registration )

It was that rare thing, scarcely seen in the financial world since the debut of the A.T.M. or microfinancing: an innovation to help regular people. When peer-to-peer, or P2P, lending began in the middle of the last decade, it offered an easy way for people to lend money to each other over the Internet.

Read Full Article: Loans that avoid banks? Maybe not