The leader in collaborative fraud management, Ethoca, today announced that the creator of the world's first social lending institution enabling P2P (person-to-person) loans, Zopa, has joined Ethoca's global network of fraud fighters.

Murray Bailey, Zopa's UK Risk Director said: "Zopa is a financial marketplace where people meet to lend and borrow money. We provide the underwriting and risk management and experience very low levels of fraud and default".

It is predicted by a research made by The Gartner Group consultancy that social banking platforms such as Zopa's (P2P) lending network will grow to a 10% share of the worldwide market for retail lending and financial planning by 2010.

Zopa already has over 150,000 people who have executed "social loans" through its services, but its strict risk controls mean that 50% of loans are still turned down, implying a lot of room for growth based on better understanding of risk. This announcement builds on the growing momentum among financial services, online retailers and gaming operators in the UK and worldwide joining together through Ethoca's collaborative fraud management services.

Andre Edelbrock, Ethoca's President and CEO said: "Zopa is a very exciting addition to the Ethoca network because it clearly demonstrates the value of collaboration in a non-traditional business model. We are only at the beginning of growth in P2P services enabled by the internet, and Ethoca's collaborative fraud management platform is an excellent fit for assessing risk between individuals who have no prior business or personal relationship. We continue to march forward in the effort to build a truly global cross-industry effort to halt and reverse the growth in online fraud through our collaboration technology". "If you sell online, it doesn't matter what kind of business you are, you will increase your returns with Ethoca."

Ethoca, with offices in Toronto, Canada and headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, is the leader in collaborative fraud management. Ethoca enables businesses operating in any customer-not-present environment (i.e., business by internet, fax, phone or mail) to make more informed decisions about their customer transactions by sharing transaction experience data in a way that is secure, automated, effective and ethical. Based on the collaborative data of Ethoca's clients to gauge the fraud-risk associated with any given transaction, businesses submit transaction data to Ethoca and can use summary history and analysis.