Well, that was quick

IOUCentral announces that it is the first peer-to-peer lending company in Canada and then is shut down by regulators about two weeks later.

Remember, nothing I say here speaks for my employer or its various (publicly-traded) parent/sister companies. But... regulators or not, this was an extremely fishy business to be in. Basically they specialize in helping little guys like you lend money to people so unlikely to pay it back that they can't get a normal bank loan. That's funny, I wonder why the banks won't lend those people money? Sigh.

(In contrast, microfinance, which does make sense, addresses a legitimate reason big banks won't lend money to poor people: they have too much fixed overhead per loan. But things like IOUCentral And Kiva increase overhead, they don't decrease it, so that's not a competitive advantage.)