Plenty of people look at Prosper.com, Zopa and now Communitylend and say:

What are you crazy? Why the heck would you loan money to strangers?

It's not an unreasonable question to ask.

However, I'm a very evidenced based person, in other words, it's what has actually happened that counts, rather than what someone thinks might happen (often overly optimistic or overly pessimistic). I've done a bit of research, and uncovered several groups that have made vast fortunes mainly by lending money to strangers.

Here's a partial list:

• Bank of Montreal
• Royal Bank of Canada
• Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
• Toronto Dominion Bank
• Bank of Nova Scotia
• HSBC, Santander Group, Barclays, etc.

If you invest in these companies, you are a willing participant in this (prudent) loaning of money to strangers concept. Chances are you've been happy with how it is has turned out.