Robo.cash’s Sri Lanka loans perform well despite economic crisis
Robo.cash’s Sri Lanka loans are performing well despite the country’s economic and political crisis.
The Croatia-based peer-to-peer lending platform launched commercial loans originated in Sri Lanka, through a partnership with its Sri Lankan operations in March. Lenders have been able to invest in the loans for a period of three years with a target return of 12.5 per cent per annum, paid monthly.
Robocash Group, the parent company of the Robo.cash platform, owns a company called Rapidlend which started operating in Sri Lanka last year. Rapidlend provides instant access to payday loans for employed individuals and selected professionals.
On the Robocash platform, Rapidlend offers commercial loans in partnership with RC Riga, a special purpose vehicle that provides funding to Robocash Group companies.
Rapidlend said in the first quarter it issued loans totalling around $700,000 (£567,583), and reported a 64 per cent share of repeated customers and 15 per cent share of overdue loans, which Robo.cash called “an excellent indicator for such a young portfolio”.
The P2P platform said at the moment the placement of new loans is on hold until the situation in the country stabilises.
Read more: Robocash Group expands into Sri Lanka
Read more: Robo.cash funded €15m of loans in April
“Sri Lanka is facing unprecedented challenges in 2022: currency devaluation, daily protests, fuel unavailability,” Fedor Neznamov, chief executive of Rapidlend, said in a blog on Robo.cash’s website.
“For our part, we aim to cover a larger volume of the short-term market in order to help the people with urgent expenses, which are rapidly growing in the face of current difficulties. In this regard, Rapidlend intends to increase the issued principal, both new and repeated loans.”
In Sri Lanka, protests have been underway against the government over its alleged inability to resolve the worst economic crisis in decades, and the country is on the brink of bankruptcy after suspending payments of its foreign debt.