Social networks of P2P loans: an alternative to banks?

More and more websites are appearing on the Internet, which in fact represent an alternative to banks. These are credit exchanges and social networks, each participant of which can act either as a borrower or as a lender. Borrowers receive long-term loans on favorable terms, and lenders can invest money at a good interest rate, which is higher than bank discount rates. Basically, these exchanges are created for students who need to pay tuition. At the moment there are at least four similar projects : three in the USA and one in China.

The largest stock exchange of P2P loans, Prosper, was established in February 2006 and since then has already attracted $ 40 million in venture capital investments. Each potential lender places there its application for up to $ 25,000 indicating the minimum percentage, and borrowers (from those approved by the lender) bargain, offering more favorable terms.

There are similar projects: American Lending Club and Chinese Qifang . And a few days ago, another Fynanz site started working , which focuses exclusively on American students. So far, only students from Florida and New York are allowed to enter financial instruments.
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The very fact of creating such systems suggests that in the future, P2P networks and crowdsourcing can be a real alternative for the holy of holies of a capitalist economy - for banking institutions.