Two years after I made my first P2P investments the results I am generating are generally better than I initially expected. The best returns I have generated are on Lending Club and Prosper.. Generally my performance is in line or better than the returns report by the various platforms.
Nearly Two Years of Monthly Results
It's now been two years since I made the first P2P investments for Symfonie Capital. I dare say that makes our boutique Symfonie Lending Fund a verteran within the unverse of funds available to most investors.
Like many investors I approached this asset class with caution. I was sceptical. It's still early days, but I am officially moving my outlook on P2P lending from sceptical to cautiously optimistic.
I invested the fund initially into three platforms - Lending Club (US), Prosper (US) and Funding Circle (UK). I added a fourth platform - Bondora (Estonia). However, the allocation was quite small and I was not satisfied with the intial results. They look great on paper and impressive on Bondora's website. But I remain sceptical and hope that time will prove me wrong.
Put Statistics into Context
It's important to stress the difficulty of statistical comparisons. Platforms report results in various ways and no two platforms use identical calculation methodologies. Common presentation in the US is presentation of "seasoned" loans, meaning loans outstanding for more than 10 months, when default rates generally start rising. Many platforms annualise the figures. Actual performance can differ significantly from extrapolated or annualsed results. The way platforms report and manage problem loan also influences performance reporting.
Lending Club - My Star Peformer
I've said many times in my periodic fund updates that Lending Club is arguably one of the most solid and reliable P2P platforms. One of the most important criteria we have when we select a P2P platform is that we can be confident that loans will peform in a way that is consistent with their classification. The loans I buy perform in line with or better than the overall performance Lending Club indicates can be expected given their risk rating.
I'm a portfolio manager. I don't like surprises. If I buy loans rated class A and I get the loss rates I would expect from class B, C or D, I feel like I went to the grocery store and bought sour milk. At Lending Club, so far the milk has been fresh and tasty.
At Lending Club our porfolio is heavily concentrated around the B and C, modest risk loans, which we believe offer the best risk/reward ratio.
According to Lending Club seasoned loan portfolios are generating returns annually beteween approximately 5.4% and 9.4%. Thus far it looks like the Symfonie portfolio is producing results at the higher end of the range. We our among the outpeformers!
Symfonie Lending Fund - Returns from Lending Club Loans
| 2014 | 2015 9M | |
| Pre-charge off return | 12.2% | 7.7% |
| After charge-off return | 12.2% | 6.3% |
Funding Circle UK - Wide Selection of Business Loans
We began investing in Funding Circle after we setup our Lending Club and Prosper portfolios. We started with a small, relatively undiversified portfolio. As luck would have it, one of the first loans we selected, a distributor of bottled water, defaulted just four months after taking the loan. We lost 3% of our investment. The overall impact on the Fund was neglible.
Since that time we've diversified our portfolio significantly into more than 400 loans. Generally speaking we select the higher quality range - categories B and C that offer gross returns of 9-10% and net returns around 5% - 7%.
A second part of our strategy is to focus on secondary market loans. Funding Circle provides liquidity by enabling investors the possibility to sell their loans. This enables us to put money to work more quickly and select businesses that have demonstrably made timely payments.
According to Funding Circle, nearly 50% of investors generate returns of 5%-7% annually. About 20% of investors manage to get as high as 8% and a few less fortunate wind up with as little as 4%. We seems to be about par for the course - nothing to get excited about, but nothing to be ashamed of either.
Symfonie Lending Fund - Returns from Funding Circle Loans
| 2014 | 2015 9M | |
| Pre-charge off return | 9.4% | 7.1% |
| After charge-off return | 3.8% | 4.0% |
Bondora - the Jury is Still Out
Our performance at Bondora looks stunning at first glance - 19% in 2014 and 14% year to date. Peel the onion a bit more and I am not so sure about that, however.
We invested an almost negligible part of of our portfolio at the start of 2014. At the time the holding was less than 5%, but now it may as well be near zero. Like many other P2P funds we are starting to inflows into our cozy little boutique.
What makes us sceptical at Bondora is the way Bondora treats non-performing loans. At Prosper and the Lending Club a non-performing loan is one that is more than 120 days late paying. Those are charged off. Gone. Goodbye. Nice knowing you. That's the consumer loan market for you. It's a numbers game. On average about 1.5% of class A consumer loans become delinquent more than 120 days. With high risk G loans the figure is more like 15% - 20%.
So what is the real performance of the rounding error of a portfolio I keep at Bondora? Tough to say! The headline Bondora trumpets is that its lenders are making 17%. But I think the reality is very different. If I were to write off the amount of my Bondora loan portfolio that is rescheduled or more than 120 days late, my return to date would be less than 2% to date.
The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. When I find out for sure I'll let you know.
Results from our Bondora Experimental Portfolio
| 2014 | 2015 9M | |
| Pre-charge off return | 19.0% | 3.1% |
| After charge-off return | 14.0% | -0.5% |
Prosper - Delivering Good Results
New management took over at Prosper last year and in our view the results are positive. Prosper re-engineered its credit model and is delivering results consistent with what is indicated by the risk ratings. For me as an investment manager this is important. I need to know what I can expect from a pool of A loans and what I can expect from a pool of C loans.Our strategy at Prosper has been to focus on the higher quality ranges of loans in the B and C category. These have yields between 8% and 12% typically and I can usually expect 6% - 10%.
| 2014 | 2015 9M | |
| Pre-charge off return | 12.1% | 8.2% |
| After charge-off return | 10.6% | 5.5% |
The Bottom Line
P2P loans give investors access to an asset class that has traditionally been the domain of banks and finance companies. The return prospects are certainly compelling. At the same time, caution is required. Each platform presents its results different and each platform has different lending standards. Diversify risk among loans and among platforms.If you want to know more about our Lending Fund, click here!
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