Chris Larsen, CEO of peer-to-peer lender Prosper Inc., spent three days last week on Capitol Hill lobbying for the new Coalition for New Credit Models, a group of alternative and technology-driven small-business lenders like Prosper. The group was formed to promote what the eight founding members, including Larsen’s firm, see as a need to embrace alternatives to big-bank lending. Doing so will lessen economic dependence on large financial institutions and minimize economic fallout from “any single point of failure,” said a media release announcing the Oct. 20 launch. And timing is critical, he said, since Congress is now in the midst of overhauling the nation’s financial… Read More