Community lending and borrowing

I have seen this happening, offline, and I never knew that this kind of concept can be imported :O But it has. What happens in this kind of concept is that you form a community and then you create a pool of money and you can take a loan [the limit is set] from the pool and everybody else makes money from the interest that you pay.

These guys at Zopa are employing one such concept. They are bringing people together to form a community and in this community there are some people who lend money and there are some people who borrow money. There is no bank involved. The lenders make money from lending their online investment, simple and Zopa makes money from providing the service to both the parties involved. Simple enough.

Great concept if it can be kept absolutely safe, and if people who join the community intend to return money they take. Although it is currently operational in UK but it won't be much time before it goes to US and the world soon.