Peer-to-peer lending, or community lending, is expected to grow 66 percent over the next three years, according to research by Gartner. Although this still makes it a very small market—at $5 billion in outstanding loans by 2013—it is becoming an increasingly-important funding source for small business and entrepreneurs.

And it may become even more important, as the first partnership between a peer-to-peer lending site and a vendor finance site takes flight.

Few people would have cared—or understood—three weeks ago if someone had said that potash is a hot commodity. But with Australia’s BHP Billiton and Canada’s PotashCorp in a dukes up, all out brawl right now for control of the Canadian fertilizer firm, potash—and the fertilizer industry—have taken on new significance.

On Tuesday they took the battle to fresh heights—or depths as the case may be—when PotashCorp accused the Aussie mining firm of “highly-unethical” behaviour, as the FT reports.

The FDIC and SEC are working hard to enact government-mandated regulatory reform for the US ABS markets as called for in Dodd-Frank. However, the two agencies, along with four other agencies that oversee the ABS markets in some way, each have proposed specific guidelines that interpret how market reform should be implemented.

With money starting to once again flow back into the technology space, investors are keen to get in on the ground level of new technology–and find that next Facebook or Google.

They are, of course, investing with caution. However, one of the key mechanisms that has long helped fuel such development has been the incubator model–where entrepreneurs can enter an intensive incubator program, get access to potential funding, and valuable education and advice to help them move along a start-up idea.

HP and Dell on Friday continued their battle royale for 3Par, the data management and cloud computing firm. The deal is the latest in a long string of transactions this summer by big tech firms in their efforts to become even bigger—and move into territory now held by their competitors.

The battle has been raging since the start of last week, when Dell first put in an offer at $18 a share for all outstanding shares of the data storage firm. 3Par accepted. HP came in to the foray this past Monday—offering $24 a share. Dell sneaked in a bid at $24.30 Thursday morning this week, and HP came back that afternoon with a $27 offer.

There are a number of leveraged loan deals in the works this month, and more in the pipeline for September. Companies that are shopping for acquisitions, and a number of private equity houses with LBOs in the works, are turning to the leveraged market for funding, and the market looks set to continue growing as autumn approaches.

Bankers will soon market a $1.5 billion term loan for the buyout of New York nutritional supplements maker NBTY by The Carlyle Group. Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays and Credit Suisse are the arrangers, and price talk is at 400 basis points over Libor.

With average days’ sales outstanding of 44.5 days, US companies could see vast improvements in their receivables processing, according to a new report from Aite Group. 

Given the need for most companies to make best use of internal liquidity, any solution that can reduce the DSO cycle—which establishes how long it takes for companies to collect on invoices—is of value. Looking externally for a solution that can shorten processing times and reduce errors or exceptions that would normally extend the payment cycle may be a worthwhile investment.

Private placements are on the rise for companies worldwide, with record issuance volumes expected this year in the private market. In addition, a number of companies have upped their deal sizes on the back of strong investor demand.

Companies raised $27.4 billion in the first half of this year, according to Thomson Reuters data, which is just below the $28.5 billion in private placement volumes seen over the full year last year.

Marcel Smits, CFO of food products company Sara Lee, is in the running for the top job at the firm after CEO Brenda Barnes announced her resignation last week.

Smits has been building his resume for the permanent post as acting CEO while Barnes was on leave. He took over the responsibilities when Barnes left on medical leave in May—after suffering from a stroke.

Strong profit figures from a number of the world’s largest container shippers are the latest indicators that global trade is indeed on the increase.

Three of the biggest shipping container lines have each reported stronger-than-expected results in their latest reporting periods, sending a big signal that world trade is on the rise—as we discussed here. Shipping containers carry around 90 percent of global merchandise trade goods.