My Isepankur Investment After 11 Months

wiseclerk

Three months have passed since I last wrote about the status of my p2p lending investment at Isepankur. I have deposited 8,000 Euro (approx. 10,500 US$) since starting in the end of 2012. I hold over 500 loan parts – the diversification achieved is very good. Together the loans add up to 9,190 Euro outstanding principal. Loans in the value of 248 Euro are overdue, meaning they (partly) missed one or two repayments. 149 Euro are in loans that are more than 60 days late. I already received 2,320 Euro in repaid principal back (which I reinvested).

Chart 1: Screenshot of loan status

Most of the money in my account is working to earn interest. Only 30 Euro are currently held in cash. 5 Euro are tied in a bid on a current loan listing and will originate in the next few days.


Chart 2: Screenshot of account balance

Return of Invest

Currently Isepankur shows me a 26.7% annual ROI (see chart 3 ). In my own calculations, using XIRR in Excel, I currently get a 23.5% ROI. Continue reading →

Auxmoney Changes Display Rules for Credit Scores

wiseclerk

P2P lending service Auxmoney changed its TOS today. Auxmoney will make display of pulled credit scores mandatory (there are 3 score types obtained from different bureaus). In the past the display of credit scores was optional and borrowers could decide, if they want them in their listing. In fact borrowers could decide to remove credit scores from their loan listing should they consider a low score to hurt funding chances.

In practise only loan applications with displayed scores had realistic funding chances in the past – over 90% of the funded loans had at least one credit score information (see chart). But this is still a positive step, offering more transparency for lenders and allowing easier comparision of the over 2,000 open loan listings.

Zopa Discontinues 1 Year Loans

wiseclerk

Zopa stopped accepting applications for 1 year p2p loans today and now concentrates on 2-5 year loan terms.

…we’ve stopped accepting applications for 1 year loans.

We introduced 1 year loans at the start of the year, with the expectation that they would become a strong channel for new loans and provide good returns to savers.  We have found that a large number of customers have now come to us applying for 1 year loans, but unfortunately we approve comparatively few of them and for the time being we believe it is ultimately better for savers to bring in more applicants for 2-5 year loans (which are much more popular choices of loan length) than continue to assess 1 year applicants.

Afluenta – P2P Lending in Argentina

wiseclerk

Afluenta is a p2p lending service operating in Argentina. It has been reporting growth since its launch in September 2012. Afluenta offers loan terms of 1, 2 or 3 years. APRs are in the range of 35 to 50%. “We are more competitive than banks because we are faster, more economic and make a difference in quality. Our technology let us screen a prospect in 15 seconds and answer 85% of loan applications immediately, while it takes days or even weeks for banks to do so” Alejandro Cosentino, founder and CEO of Afluenta told P2P-Banking.com.

P2P Lending Volumes in July 2013

wiseclerk

It has been some time since I last did an article at P2P-Banking.com on lending volumes. 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. July was another month of rapid growth. As the table shows p2p volumes originated grew strongly for nearly all services when compared to the last month or last years month.


Table: P2P Lending Volumes in July 2013. Source: own research
Note that volumes have been converted from local currency to US$ for the sake of comparision. 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 Isepankur Opens To Borrowers In Finland

wiseclerk

Estonian p2p lending service Isepankur announced today that it now offers p2p loans to borrowers from Finland. Isepankur already opened to lenders from multiple markets last year. Now Isepankur adds Finland as the first foreign market executing the expansion strategy on the borrower side.

Here is an excerpt of the announcement made today:

Dear customer,

We have taken the next step towards building a pan-European credit platform so you could continue enjoying a great return on your money. We have now also started accepting loan applications from Finnish residents side-by-side with existing Estonian borrowers. We will offer one of the best rates in the market whilst trying to deliver a great return to our international and local investors all in one single platform.

Finnish market offers an opportunity to diversify your portfolio and better manager your returns. Here are some key facts about Finland which you might not have known:

Population: 5.4 million; 67% live in towns or urban areas, 33% in rural areas
Monthly wages: average 3,040 €; men 3,352 €, women 2,735 € (2010)
Internet users: 85,3% of the population internet (ITU, June,2010)
A number of payday loan providers has grown rapidly in recent years pushing up the interest rates up to 50% per annum. Lack of competition in the consumer lending and banking market means that even low risk customers typically pay above 20% per annum.
Situated: Northern Europe, neighbouring Sweden, Norway, Estonia and Russia

…

We believe that there is a big potential for isePankur on the Finnish market as most of the competition consists of unethical and unsustainable loan providers. We are sure that investors will find new attractive investments opportunities with solid returns. Please be aware that it might take a couple of weeks for the Finnish investment opportunities to appear on the market. We will soon also allow you to add market-specific configurations to your investment profiles.

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