Twino temporarily suspends repayments of Russian loans
Twino has temporarily suspended the principal repayments of Russian loans and will stop issuing Russian loans on the platform for several days.
The European peer-to-peer lending platform said it has been able to successfully cover all the investor repayments for over a week since the escalation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
But Twino said that war and sanctions against Russia mean that cross-border cooperation is near impossible. As a result, the platform said it has decided to temporarily stop the principal repayments of the Russian loans until the stabilisation of cross-border cooperation. This is not expected to impact investments in loans from any other regions.
Twino said that Russian loans are no longer being listed on the investment platform and in cooperation with the Russian loan originator, it is actively working to find new ways to ensure it can receive payments from Russia. The interest repayments of the Russian loans will continue, the platform added.
The platform said the secondary market remains open for buying and selling Russian loans and that the platform will continue to work to ensure quick repayments of the existing investments and timely interest payments, regardless of any ongoing developments in the war.
Twino said the Russian loan portfolio accounts for 19 per cent of all loans on the platform while the other 81 per cent of the investor portfolio will not be impacted in any way.
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“Twino investment platform has always found solutions to ensure repayments to investors regardless of the global market situation,” Twino said in a blog on its website.
“During the seven years of our operations, investors have always received both the principal and interest repayments in full amount, and this is definitely something that we are proud of and are not planning to change.
“Furthermore, as a regulated entity there are stringent policies and procedures that we have to ensure and follow.
“Twino team hopes for your understanding during this truly unprecedented event.”
Earlier this month, Twino revealed plans to increase investment opportunities in loans from European and Asian operations, and to increase real estate loans, after reducing its exposure to the Russia market.
In February, the platform created an internal task group to monitor loans with exposure to Russia, as the Russia/Ukraine conflict intensified.