The social networking revolution has struck in personal finance, or so it seems. Where social networking was primarily about getting in touch, or doing business, networking in personal finance, show websites such as finicity.com, greennote.com, prosper.com or more development oriented sites such as kiva.com, are about connecting over a common goal, peer-to peer lending and exchanging knowledge on finance.


Websites are springing up that are changing the way we lend and borrow and the ways in which to manage finance. Examples are recently launched finicity.com, which couples a money managing scheme with a community support system, or early bird prosper.com, founded in 2005, an online community for lending and borrowing money in the US, zopa.com, a UK peer-to-peer lending service, or greennote.com, a platform for students to raise money for student loans. The latter three function on the idea that with no banks in the middle and no overheads, borrowing and lending is profitable for all involved.

Most of these finance sites are set up by men, but social entrepreneur website kiva.com is an exception. It was co-founded by Jessica and Matt Flannery, and their current CFO, Jen Hamilton, founder of travelsite ontheroadtravel.com. Kiva.com is the only of its kind, providing microcredit to businesses in the developing world. Its 'social networking' side lies in the possibility for the lender to receive email journal updates from borrowers and track repayments throughout the course of the loan. Aspiring entrepreneurs and the business they need financing for are featured on the site, giving it a social network feel. Lenders can browse profiles, and are giving the option to search entrpreneurs by region, business and even gender.