June was another strong month for p2p lending services. Especially Prosper, Assetz Capital, Folk2Folk and Wellesley did grow their volume substantially. My estimate for the Lending Club number for June may be too high (I took the known figure of 1,006 million US$ loans issued in Q2 and subtracted my approximated numbers for April and May. But these April and May approximations may have been too low). I do monitor development of p2p lending figures for many markets. Since I already have most of the data on file I can publish statistics on the monthly loan originations for selected p2p lending services.
Table: P2P Lending Volumes in June 2014. Source: own research Note that volumes have been converted from local currency to Euro for the sake of comparison. Some figures are estimates/approximations.
Notice to p2p lending services not listed: If you want to be included in this chart in future, please email the following figures on the first working day of a month: total loan volume originated since inception, loan volume originated in previous month, number of loans originated in previous month, average nominal interest rate of loans originated in previous month.
I started p2p lending at Bondora (formerly Isepankur) in the end of 2012. Since then I periodically wrote on my experiences – you can read my last report here. Since the start have deposited 13,000 Euro (approx. 17,600 US$). My portfolio is very diversified. Most loan parts I hold are for loan terms between 36 and 60 months. Together the loans add up to 15,610 Euro outstanding principal. Loans in the value of 1,579 Euro are overdue, meaning they (partly) missed one or two repayments. 888 Euro are in loans that are more than 60 days late. I already received 6,212 Euro in repaid principal back (which I reinvested).
Chart 1: Screenshot of loan status
Right now I have a high amount of cash in the account – 1,144 Euro. I’ll explain what led to this situation later on.
Chart 2: Screenshot of account balance
Return on Invest
Currently Isepankur shows my ROI to be over 28.8% (sidenote: I and several others observed that trading had no impact on the ROI shown. Then our ROI suddenly jumped on June 19th; we assume Bondora changed the calculation then to account (better?) for capital gains; here is an example of a portfolio with very big impact of trading). In my own calculations, using XIRR in Excel, I currently get a 25.9% ROI. Even if I assume that 50% of my 60+days overdue will not be recovered (past recovery rates reported by Bondora have been high) my ROI still calculates to 23.2% .Continue reading →
Developments in May were mixed when compared to p2p lending volumes in April. I added one new service to the table. I do monitor development of p2p lending figures for many markets. Since I already have most of the data on file I can publish statistics on the monthly loan originations for selected p2p lending services.
Table: P2P Lending Volumes in May 2014. Source: own research Note that volumes have been converted from local currency to Euro for the sake of comparison. Some figures are estimates/approximations.
Notice to p2p lending services not listed: If you want to be included in this chart in future, please email the following figures on the first working day of a month: total loan volume originated since inception, loan volume originated in previous month, number of loans originated in previous month, average nominal interest rate of loans originated in previous month.
Prosper had a very good April. In UK especially the platforms for property secured lending grew their volume compared to last month. I added two new services to the table. I do monitor development of p2p lending figures for many markets. Since I already have most of the data on file I can publish statistics on the monthly loan originations for selected p2p lending services.
Table: P2P Lending Volumes in April 2014. Source: own research Note that volumes have been converted from local currency to Euro for the sake of comparison. Some figures are estimates/approximations.
Notice to p2p lending services not listed: If you want to be included in this chart in future, please email the following figures on the first working day of a month: total loan volume originated since inception, loan volume originated in previous month, number of loans originated in previous month, average nominal interest rate of loans originated in previous month.
P2P lending service Bondora informed investors today that it plans changes to the bidding system in May. So far Bondora allows borrower to selected between ‘timed funding’ which results in a reverse auction lowering interest rates if more lenders want to bid on a loan during the auction period than the loan amount needed and ‘quick funding’ where the bidding ends, once the loan is fully filled.
In future Bondora will uniformly use ‘quick funding’ loans with fixed interest rates.
Since there will be no advantage for investors to set interest rates low on their automated investment profiles any more after the change, I expect the short term effect will be that investors raise the interest rate on their profiles to the actual interest rate they want to invest at (Currently it is possible and custom to bid 6% in order to heighten chances that bids participate in quick funding loans, which then might actually close at 28%).
P2P Lending marketplace Isepankur yesterday rebranded as Bondora. Bondora is active for borrowers in Estonia, Spain, Finland and Slovakia and lenders in 29 countries across Europe (all European Union countries plus Switzerland).
Following a new 1.3M Euro round of financing raised for the company, Bondora welcomes a new board to help the company in delivering an innovative business idea across the borders.
Mark Noetzold (a member of various supervisory boards and a lecturer for risk management in Germany, Switzerland and Austria), João P. S. Monteiro (an international manager responsible for global development at a blue-chip company) and Mati Otsmaa (a C-level management executive with extensive experience in consumer credit lending at American Express, Barclays, Citibank, Chase, Experian and HSBC) join forces to improve, market and raise awareness for the first cross-border peer-lending platform Bondora.
„Direct or p2p lending is the most rapidly developing financial service today and has a huge future potential by offering the best solutions to the borrowers and high returns for the lenders. I believe that Bondora, with its cross-border strategy, strong team and the ability to execute fast, has the potential to change the world of finance to be more transparent and straightforward,†– commented João P. S. Monteiro, board member and one of the angel investors.
According to an article in E24 Postimees the new investors now hold about 19% to 20% of the company shares.
„Over the last 5 years we have brought together over 70,000 customers from 29 countries to borrow and lend on our platform. The newly raised capital will be used to improve, market and raise awareness of our service further. Today we have a product, where a telephone engineer from Estonia could get funds to renovate his flat from a dozen of lenders located in any European country. Not only our borrowers get a chance to have their loans financed, but they get the best available deal on the marketplace. A secretary from Slovakia, for example, ready to pay 28% for a 600 Euro loan to study English, might end up paying only 12% because lenders pile in. It is a simple and secure application process for the borrowers and a possibility to diversify private investment for the lenders. At the moment 26% of our lenders come from Germany, 11% from the UK and 4% from Switzerland (with the rest being spread across Europe). With the rapid growth of the company in the last year, the old name could no longer accommodate room for our cross-border growth, that is why today we are also launching our new name – Bondora, and our website available in 23 languages,†– commented the CEO of Bondora, Pärtel Tomberg. Continue reading →
