Social Lending Breakthrough:Student Loans for the Developing World.

In the wake of the resounding success of LendingClub.com, the people-powered community lending site which should soon hit the 25,000 investor mark, comes another social lending breakthrough. Now a Seattle-based foundation Vittana brings peer-to-peer benefits to students in the developing world via educational loans.

Now in beta, Vittana partners with microfinance institutions (MFIs) throughout the developing world to support the new student lending programs. Potential lenders begin by browsing through the students like Katherine who are profiled on the site. When they see one they’d like to help, they can lend as little as USD 25 toward that student’s education. Vittana’s local MFI partner—which has already verified that the students listed are hard-working and likely to succeed—then provides the full amount of that loan to the student. Once the student graduates and gets a job, he or she starts paying back that MFI partner; when the loaned funds are fully repaid, Vittana returns to the lender the full amount that was lent.

Given the chaos in the traditional banking industry, the growing popularity and increasing number of new financial products in the social lending category is a welcome trend.

Thanks to Springwise.