For example, the ECB has a deposit facility that pays interest to banks, an emergency marginal lending facility for overnight borrowing and a weekly refinancing operation in which it lends money to banks.

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The site has only been in operation since mid 2007, but as of now, Lending Club claims to have a 0% default rate and says that only a small fraction of borrowers--0.012% --have made late payments (30 days or more).

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He's done so via Lending Club, a company whose website has, over its three years in operation, matched 23, 000 lenders with 18, 500 loans.

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