Investors will be thrilled to know that we’ve relaunched the Spanish origination market in September. Thank you for being patient with us as we ensured that we’re 100% ready to relaunch and go bigger than ever in Spain.
In August, Bondora saw a trend-reversal in originations, but originations were back to their growing ways in September. Bondora originated €12,296,773’s worth of loans in September, growing 6.2% from August.
Country breakdown
While they only originated €4,783 over the month, Spanish loans were originated for the first time in 2021 during September. Investors might be keen to watch these originations as Bondora starts to work with Spanish borrowers once again.
Meanwhile, Finnish originations grew to 38.2% of all originations on the platform, compared to 36.6% in August. This growth in percentage share correlates with a 10.6% growth rate for Finnish originations. Even though Estonian originations lost 1.6% of their total origination share, they managed to grow by 3.5% on the month.
Newly originated Spanish loans came in the form of C-rated originations. In Finland, there continued to be only D-rated originations. Estonian originations skewed slightly toward lower rating categories, with the most growth seen in F-rated (+16.5%), E-rated (+13.3%), and D-rated (+17.8%) originations.
Loan amounts
In September, the average loan amount was €3,460. This is 38.0% higher than in August, a drastic increase after several months of decline. Finnish loan amounts also grew to an average of €2,788, translating to a monthly growth rate of 11.2%. Spanish originations averaged €1,594.
Loan duration
Both Estonian and Finnish originations saw their average duration increase to 57-month and 56-month periods, respectively. However, both increases are minimal and not large enough to be statistically significant. On average, Spanish originations had the longest duration at 58 months.
There was a 12.2% increase in 60-month loan durations for Finnish originations. But the most significant change to Finnish originations was the 80.6% decline in 6-month durations.
Estonian durations saw declines across the board, with the most significant declines in short-term durations. 6-month durations were down by 62.1%, 9-month durations decreased by 53.1%, and 12-month durations were lower by 54.9%.
Average age
The average Finnish borrower was once again a 44-year-old. Estonian borrowers reverted to an average age of 37 years, the same as in July. Meanwhile, Spanish borrowers came in at an average of 40 years.
Income
The average income of Estonian borrowers continues to see-saw, rising and falling drastically each month, as seen in the following figures:
July: -39.9%
August: +68.6%
September: -28.1%
Estonian borrowers earned on average less than Spanish borrowers (€2,100) this month. Alternatively, Finnish incomes are steadily on the decline, down by 5.2% in September.
Education
Finnish borrowers were more likely to have a university education, with this group of borrowers up by 10.8% on the month and accounting for 30.1% of all borrowers in the country. As for Estonian borrowers, the biggest decline was in university education (down 27.2%), followed by the vocational school (down 26.1%).
Employment
Bondora borrowers were less likely to be employed for more than 5 years in September, with this borrower group down 19.6% month-over-month. A similar decline was seen in those employed up to 5 years (down 14.1%) and employed up to 1 year (down 14.3).
Homeownership status
Finnish borrowers that are tenants grew by 6.3%, while homeowners are still the most likely to be borrowers in Finland, with 47.5% of such borrowers owning property. Estonian borrowers were less likely to have a mortgage (down 32.9%) or be tenants (down 27.2%). Although, all areas of homeownership were lower for Estonian borrowers on the month.
Verification status
Bondora borrowers were verified at their highest rate yet. All borrowers from Finland and Spain were verified, and 97.5% of Estonian borrowers were also verified on the month. This led to a total verification rate of 98.6%.
Conclusion
While the amount of money originated on Bondora grew by 6.2% over September, the number of originations declined by 15.3%. This means that Bondora was still able to increase its originations without introducing as many new borrowers. It’s an interesting divergence in these two statistics, which most often run parallel to one another that can be interesting to watch in the coming months.
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