Market Discussions

If you are lending against collateral you don't need to vet the borrower, just the third party who will be holding the collateral on your behalf. The point of this setup is that there is nothing the borrower can do to scam you in this situation as your exposure is to the third party instead. Your risk, then, is that the third party might scam (as Darknesss did recently). When using a third party the normal interest rates you can expect are between 1.5 and 3% per month (normally the lower end). You can also make direct uncollateralised loans. These are considerably riskier and here you do have to do the vetting work yourself (if this is what you are interested in I can link you a rough guide to making risk assessments). For uncollateralised loans you can expect returns of between 1.5% and about 10% typically, depending on what the borrower is willing to offer and how risky they are perceived to be.

Historically, the main third parties used for large loans (100bil plus) on MD have been Chribba and Grendell. A few other people also have a history acting as third parties, although typically for smaller amounts, including myself, Vaerah Vahrokha (VV) and Elizabeth Norn. Both VV and Grendell are either inactive or have dialled back their activity in this field. As far as I know, Chribba is still doing the large deals.

To find borrowers, either make a post saying you are looking to lend isk and wait for customers to come to you, or keep your eye on MD posts and get in quickly on the 'bluechip' offerings. The riskier, uncollateralised loans you will tend to have a bit more time with as they don't fill as fast because potential lenders and MD regulars do the 'due diligence' vetting work first by asking questions in their threads.

The basics of making a risk assessment are here:

https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=6719171#post6719171

If you are lending uncollateralised you'll also want to do things like fact check as much of the prospective borrower's claims as possible and, ideally, go through their posting history (using evesearch) to get a sense of their character and to see whether they are a fan of nefarious activities. Also check whether the character has recently been sold and see if anything just doesn't add up (e.g. just sold a different character for 50bil but claiming they desperately need 10bil to start trading). If you have questions about anything, ask them in their thread and see how they respond. Remember to stay polite when doing this. It is normally impossible to be certain if someone is going to scam so even if you think it's likely don't make accusations that can't be 100% backed up.

He wants to lend isk, not borrow

Oh! You've been unsuccessful at lending as well as borrowing? My condolences. Some guys just can't get a break.

Confirming I am taking time off from 3rd party work, to enjoy the simpler things in game for the time being. I suspect I'll start accepting work in roughly 2 months.