P2P Lending: the new Finance Company?

In New Zealand recently there has been a procession of finance companies going under as people panic and yank their money out. The resulting illiquidity brings the companies down. Rob Findlay points out that in Australia the P2P (person to person) lending area is beginning to be used as investment opportunities for people unable to get similar rates from banks. How do those things go together? Well, the people in NZ who invested in Finance Companies did so to get rates of return in excess of the rates they could get from the banks. They were ignorant of what the finance company invested in and were unaware of how far down the list they would be when everything turned pear-shaped. I see the same thing happening in the P2P market, should they catch on here: sophisticated investors will go in an earn returns above what banks offer. The marketing arm of the P2P comnpany will step in and publicise how everyone wins from P2P. Mr and Mrs Joe Average investor will say "instead of investing in those dangerous finance companies, I'm going to invest in this here P2P thingy". The person they lend the money to will go under and the unsophisticated investors will look around disrotientated and say "Wha' happened?". I'm not sure what information is disclosed about the counter party in these P2P loans, but if I'm going to invest any money with them, I'd want to know a lot about the person I'm lending to. I worry that Mr and Mrs Average will be less interested in the risk and more interested in the return.