Due to the high interest from investors and the media, we organized a press conference last week where we introduced this product in detail. We also answered questions about how it works, the associated risks, and potential returns.

The press conference was also attended by the editors of Hospodářské noviny, who wrote an extensive article about Bondster’s new investment product, in which you will find, among other things:

• How litigation investments work
• What returns you can expect
• What risks are associated with this type of investment
• How Bondster cooperates with Nera Capital

READ THE ARTICLE IN THE NEWSPAPER

If you are interested in the opportunity to invest in justice and would like to try this new investment for yourself, start investing today on our Bondster platform.

INVEST

If you would like to know even more about litigation investments and Nera Capital, we recommend reading our previous article. You will find details about how the company operates, how cases are selected, and their track record so far.

READ THE BONDSTER ARTICLE

Author: David Jukl

“At ITF, we believe the future of consumer lending lies in providing financial aid to every person anywhere at any time.”

The company has been on the platform Bondster for the second year now and you can find it in the Buyback segment. Avid investors are well aware of it thanks to the attractive interest it offers, regular payments and a successful business model. The return on investment can be up to 16% p.a. What ITF does is that it lends money to individuals. With the help of various technological solutions and coordinated risk management processes, it aims to provide better access to loans for its clients.

ITF Group has a successful operation track record including during the Covid-19 pandemic, establishing stable revenues and a quality portfolio for the future.

Now, after overcoming the pandemic, ITF is striving to further improve its prospects and pushes the growth of its business forward. In the first quarter of 2022, the company increased its portfolio by 17% with origination increasing by 77% YoY. ITF Group has developed and continues developing its proprietary platform, which features comprehensive technological solutions for risk assessment, customer support, loan disbursement and related payments collections, including the use of Business Intelligence tools.

True to its vision of dynamic growth, the management projects a 60% increase YoY in 2022 revenue.

Why not check and use this investment opportunity by adding ITF to the automated investment tool in your investor’s account and start participating in ITF’s further growth while achieving personal gains at the same time?

Given its proven long-term strong points and maintaining its flexibility, ITF Group looks into the future with high expectations. In the Providers section on our web, you can find the company’s presentation including its financial statements.

Are you interested in learning more about ITF? Have a look at a short interview with the company’s CEO Svetoslav Angelov taken by our affiliate specialist Marketa Mazanova.

Author: ITF, Bondster.

Pavel Klema as a guest in the P2P café podcast

Renowned German bloggers Thomas Butz and Lars Wrobbel recorded a podcast about Bondster, to which they also invited its CEO, Pavel Klema.

In this episode of their regular podcast, they focused on detailed information about the platform as such, how much they invest in it, how it is with regulations, the secondary market, loan security, and, last but not least, they shared their personal experiences with the platform.

In the end, they interviewed Pavel Klema, CEO of Bondster. You can listen to the whole episode (in German) here.

P2P Investment Europe adds Bondster to its portfolio

Angelo Colombo, from the P2P investment Europe Youtube channel, has added the Bondster platform to its investment portfolio

In the video he made on this topic, you will learn why he decided to start investing on the Bondster platform. Angelo reveals the benefits of investing with Bondster, what attributes he likes on the platform, and what makes it easier for him to invest.

You can watch the whole video here. The Bondster section starts at 6:00 a.m.

Bernhard Hummel ranked Bondster among his TOP 2

Austrian influencer and Youtuber Bernhard Hummel published a video on his Youtube channel, in which he introduces his selection of TOP 3 platforms for 2022.

In the video (from 8 minutes onwards) you will learn, among other things, what he values ​​on the platform, what investment strategies he uses, and what returns can be expected on the platform.

You can watch the whole video on his channel.

Author: Markéta Mazanová

Jaco Coetzee, Managing Director of Lime Loans South Africa has provided an overview of the current situation in the South African consumer credit market, as well as the company’s future goals, strategic plans and interactions with investors.

What experience do you have in the industry? Where have you worked before?

I have 25 years’ experience in the retail financial markets in multiple countries on the African continent. Some of these countries include South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Lesotho, and Swaziland.

I have worked for several Banks, two publicly listed financial services and fintech enterprises, as well as multiple consumer finance entities like Select Africa and African Financial Services. This has allowed me to accumulate a wealth of experience in establishing, managing, and enhancing financial services operations in emerging markets in Africa. As a result of this international experience, I acquired the comprehension of sound financial and operational strategies with specific focus on delivering results for investors and shareholders.

What happened in the corona crisis? What changes have you implemented based on the experience of the corona crisis?

The answer should be divided into two parts.

Firstly, from a credit consumer perspective the lockdown during 2020 and the first two quarters of 2021 severely affected people’s ability to earn regular income, which fuelled the increase in the demand for credit.

Secondly, from a credit providers perspective, this increase in demand came with a significantly enhanced risk, as many small to medium enterprises did not survive the corona crisis and had to either downsize or close their operations. Although one strives for a fully automated credit application and approval process, the corona crisis forced credit providers to regress from this ideology as manual steps like telephonic employment confirmation had to be put in place to understand the risk of employees losing their employment.

The entire world forcibly adopted the idea of reliable employees working remotely and thus minimising the need for brick-and-mortar office spaces. Currently we allow staff to work remotely during peak times of the month, as they are more productive when they don’t need to spend hours traveling to and from work.

How do you see the current situation in the SA market? What about the future?

Like the rest of the world, there continues to be some turbulence in the consumer credit markets fuelled by the pandemic and with potential new trends emerging. Wider economic and political incidents continue to impact the consumer sentiment and outlook, and these will shape the markets recovery.

Full recovery is imminent, credit providers must constantly monitor for shifts in consumer behaviour and swiftly adapt to the changing demands and preferences. The road to recovery requires being proactive, adaptive, and informed.

To achieve our goals, we have significantly improved our scoring methodology to evaluate the clients’ creditworthiness with a high degree of accuracy and fairness. While this post-covid turbulence remains, a significant increase in demand for online financial services has emerged in comparison to the prior popularity of offline brick and mortar MFIs before the pandemic. Lockdowns and restrictions during the pandemic have seriously inhibited the growth and development of these offline MFIs.

As confirmation of the above and the current demand for online lending, the volume of loans disbursed by Lime Loans South Africa has grown by 71% between January and October 2021.

How is the consumer credit market regulated in SA? Is Lime SA under the supervision of the regulator?

A Government agency called the National Credit Regulator (NCR) regulates the consumer credit market in South Africa and their aim is to promote a fair and non-discriminatory marketplace for access to consumer credit, while also promoting responsible credit granting. Lime Loans South Africa is indeed under the supervision of the National Credit Regulator and fully certified to trade as a credit provider.

Maximum interest rates and fees chargeable are regulated by the NCR, however the regulator also implemented a system called DebiCheck which allows lenders the opportunity to collect the loan principal, fees, and interest directly from the customer bank account using authenticated, non-disputable debit orders. Thus, an equilibrium in the credit market is created, within both sides being protected.

Before the corona crisis, the company’s number of loans originations were approximately 4000 per month. What is the situation today?

Lime Loans South Africa currently originates over 6400 loans per month, but our main focus while growing originations, is to maintain a stable and acceptable recovery rate to maintain profitability of business.

To achieve this, we give special attention to our customers to maintain a retention rate (over 80%) and safely increase the LTV of our best performing borrowers by providing a loyalty program and gradually increasing their average loan value (up 20% from January to November 2021).

Can you briefly describe how your system for evaluating loan applicant’s data works? How is your client portfolio evolving?

As an international company, Lime Credit Group has accumulated vast experience in developing advanced scoring mechanisms including but not limited to credit robots, scoring models, and client assessment systems. Lime Loans South Africa implements these mechanisms from the group but has also adopted an advanced auto-assignment system for returning clients, an evolved score card and a Russian-developed AI-model.

In addition to that, a department of loan verification evaluates each new client’s loan application and supporting documentation. They thoroughly assess each client’s eligibility for a loan, determine affordability and risk profile by using information and data gathered from the client’s credit bureau report and other specific documents.

As a result of originating only payday loans currently, the client portfolio has remained stable and has not significantly changed. With the introduction of new products in 2022 as well as the introduction of multiple technological enhancements, we expect the client portfolio to evolve, driven mainly by bigger loan values and longer repayment terms.

Are you planning any new products or modification of existing products? Which ones will appear on Bondster?

Installment loans with repayment terms between 3 and 6 months will be tested in 2022 to further improve the current value proposition for clients with a good repayment history. This will give them the opportunity to access bigger loan values, but with reduced monthly installments.

Once thoroughly tested, both the Installment Loan and Payday Loan offering will appear on Bondster.

What are your plans for the future that might be attractive to investors?

Lime Loans South Africa will significantly scale its business in South Africa in 2022, it is planned to more than double its current monthly originations. Supporting this planned growth in 2022, Lime Loans South Africa is also investing in a new loan management software, new collections software and the use of automated expense categorization of the bank statement data, using the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Software to reduce mistakes of human intervention.

Secondly, Lime Loans South Africa will expand to the additional regions in Africa in 2023. This expansion will primarily focus on the payroll lending, where loan installments are collected by the borrower’s employer and paid over to the lender. This collection method poses significantly less risk of loans going into default with historical collection rates between 95% and 98%. In addition, credit life insurance is added to the loan product to further safeguard the lender if the borrower dies. This will provide investors the opportunity to make high yielding, longer term investments with reduced risk.

What would you like to tell our investors?

For the past years Lime Loans South Africa has been showing a stable growth even during the covid and post covid era. Since the beginning of 2021 the company has been planning expansions within the African market which it will realize in 2023. Lime Loans South Africa’s success is as a result of synergy between the high professional standards of employees and its advanced technologies used within its operations. This will continue to remain one of our main focus points for the future.

Author: Petra Halíková