Finnish loans

I tried a small experiment a couple of years ago, with under 1% of my portfolio, when Spain & Slovakia looked like a car crash waiting to happen; Estonian loans were getting more difficult to acquire & on paper Finnish loans looked great - high salary & disposable income, good solid jobs, low debt levels, all the signs were promising but I found that they mainly took the view payment dates were flexible, voluntary & variable. In the end most did pay but it was randomly at best, so after about 6 months I decided to sell most away on the SM & that Estonian borrowers were actually in a class of their own. I have about 10 left, 1 defaulted after 2 payments (no recovery after more than 2 years - no surprise there!), half of which repaid early & the other half still running but far too small to be a representative sample.

I concluded that lending outside Estonia & UK is a tricky proposition & to make money from the Finnish it is better to be a sauna engineer or vodka salesman.