New Social Network for Loan Applications?

A new Miami-based website, boasting of the opportunity for loan seekers to post information about themselves and their projects, announced its launch Monday.

The site, www.weemba.com, acts as a kind of social network for borrowers and lenders. Borrowers post their general information (age, income level, education for individuals, and number of employees or annual revenue for businesses), the projects they are involved in and the kind of loan they are seeking, and lenders can browse users for the right fit. Lenders ask borrowers to view their information, and borrowers can allow it at their discretion. The parties then contact each other outside of the network to conduct the transaction.

There is no fee for use of the site. A press release touts Weemba as an easier way to get a loan in a harsh economic climate, but it's unclear how jittery markets and lenders will take to the new financial site. The potential identity-theft perils posed by existing social network sites like Facebook may give pause to potential users, but the company boasts of its "proprietary methods and state-of-the-art safeguards," including an ID validation process by a third party.