EstateGuru predicts drop in defaults after ‘focus on late loan management’
EstateGuru said its default rate ticked up in April, but predicted a decrease during the second quarter as it has focused on its late loan management over the past month.
The European peer-to-peer lending platform saw its lending drop slightly from €16.7m (£14.3m) in March to €14.7m (£12.6m) in April while its default rate rose from five to 5.9 per cent over the same period.
It said that new loans in Estonia made up almost half of the volume of lending last month, followed by Germany and Latvia.
Meanwhile, the platform revealed its default rate rose because of overdue payments in Lithuania and Estonia.
However, the P2P lender added that it expects the collateral from two large Finnish loans, totalling €3.5m, to be sold through auctions within a month, and repayment to investors to be made in June or July.
Read more: EstateGuru aims to double loan volumes this year after bumper Q1
“During the past month we have focused on our late loan management, and hence we expect the late loan amount to decrease during the second quarter,” EstateGuru said in a blog on its website.
In April the platform’s borrowers paid back 1.5 times more loans than in March, so the platform has not changed its forecast and said it predicts further improvement in repayments during the second quarter.
Read more: EstateGuru grew lending by nine per cent in first quarter
EstateGuru launched a €3m fundraising campaign on equity crowdfunding platform Seedrs earlier this month to “support intensive growth and expansion plans”, which closes tomorrow (25 May).