The ZOPA model will soon dominate personal banking in the UK Essay

The ZOPA model will soon dominate personal banking in the UK - Essay Example Zopa UK has been operating in the UK virtual environment for 6 years. ZOPA has been providing a lending and borrowing medium to people at cost-effective and competitive rates unlike banks that charge higher rates to borrowers at their own terms and conditions. Zopa member strength was just 300 when it started in 2005. Within next 4 months, it reached to 26,000 members. Zopa has been able to offer competitive rates as its products are riskier to other market players (Chaffey, 2008). The company was established by the three founders namely chief executive Richard Duvall, chief financial officer James Alexander and David Nicholson. All the three founders of Zopa had some connection with Egg; Richard Duvall was the leading man behind the creation of online bank for Prudential in 1998; Mr. Alexander had been the strategy director when he joined Egg in 2000 and before that he was working for Smile, an online bank. Egg’s brand development director Sarah Mathew also joined the league to write a successful story on Zopa in 2005 (Chaffey, 2008). Zopa is an online marketplace that brings investors and borrowers on the same platform for the realisation of a personal loan at competitive rates to both the parties unlike banks that charge higher interest rates. At Zopa there is no need to worry about overhead charges, unethical investments, managing employees in thousands and branches in hundreds.