Bondora - All loans 1EUR???

There have been huge swings in the premium to be paid for loans from the Secondary Market over the last 2 months.  I suspected that this was due to the sudden strangulation of supply when Bondora decided that the real Peer-to-Peer lenders (those who select the individual loans they wish to invest in, by whatever means are made available) would only be shown those loans Bondora wanted to show them, based on the percentage difference in investments made each month via the different investment offerings available (G&G, Portfolio Pro, API, etc.).  The premium seemed to have settled back to about double what they were for new loans, but he supply has once again shrunk to next-to nothing and I am holding historically huge amounts of cash (for me!).

I further suspect that this has been complicated by similarly wild swings in interest rates quoted for consumer lending, mostly getting lower since the start of the pandemic as governments try to support their economies.  I have tried to look at the consumer interest rates available to borrowers across different countries in the EU, but I am hampered by my use of an aging PC (through choice) and the extreme security on it that effectively stops most complex and mobile-focussed sites displaying.

What little I have learned suggests that the historically low interest rates are common world wide, so the likes of Bondora are pretty much a last option for borrowing for most people.  Last weekend, large number of my loans repaying in total or paying back significant proportions (up to 50%) of their outstanding loan amounts.  I take this event to mean that there is significantly cheaper money available elsewhere.

My thoughts on this are also supported by the almost cliff-edge drop in interest rates charged to Finnish borrowers by Bondora compared to 12 months ago and the distinct lack of the promised re-entry into Spain (where my average interest rate held is still c.60%).

Finally, I am saddened (but not surprised) to see that the download of the full data set has been effectively rendered useless, since it has not been updated since 09/08/2021.  On reporting it, I was told (and I paraphrase) that they had more important things to do and they would get round to it, sometime.  You just have to love these people don't you? I can't see it being a big job, but I also suspect a major re-engineering of the structure of their system has taken place over the last month or 2 and that little things like the thing that really sets them apart have just been lost, or are no longer in keeping with their latest image.

I am preparing myself for a hold-and-repatriate strategy for Bondora, which would be a shame as it's been a fun ride.  Mostly, though, I am saddened by the shrivelling of a great idea and its transformation into something that looks exactly like a bank, which is ironic, given Bondora's tagline.  I often wonder how Partel feekls about the pesent state of play and what his dream has come to look like. I do hope he is not too upset, it was a great idea, but things just never go as you really want them to.