19 February 2020
Arūnas Lekavičius, CEO of PeerBerry Interview for zinszuechter.blogspot.com
We’re always happy to receive questions from our investors and to share our answers with you – as this information can be interesting and valuable for all our clients and readers of our Blog.
This time we have received questions from our Investor Bernd Odens, who shares his investing experience on his Blog zinszuechter.blogspot.com. PeerBerry CEO Arūnas Lekavičius shares his answers with Bernd Odens and you.
What differentiates PeerBerry platform from the others?
Our clients – investors are highly satisfied with combination of interest rates, offered to invest in loans, buyback guarantee together with additional guarantee, user-friendly website and our approach to investors – we are always open to answer all investors questions and to provide necessary support when using our services. Our most loyal clients are enjoying the extra interest rates of the loyalty program, which is very much appreciated.
Over the couple of years, we have earned strong investors’ confidence and become the No 2 P2P platform in continental Europe according to the funded loans. Our platform cooperates with well-known and successfully operating loan originators – the companies, which are a part of strong Groups of digital lenders. Our main priority is safe investments to all our investors. The whole package of benefits that our clients receive and our attitude towards our investors make us one of the most advanced and reliable P2P platforms today.
- How do you ensure security and transparency?
PeerBerry loan originators are periodically evaluated according to our internal procedures. The evaluation includes both – the financial situation, the quality of the loan portfolio and the analysis of applied internal processes. We care about our investors’ money and our reputation, so we make sure, that loan originators are able to fulfill their obligations and it doesn’t matter in which country loan originator operates. Also, a very important part of the risk handling strategy is that we are in cooperation with loan originators from 3 strong Groups. These Groups are in business for more than 5 or 10 years and have an excellent reputation, profitable performance, professional management. Share of portfolios in PeerBerry by business partners:
- Share of loans, listed on PeerBerry by Aventus Group companies accounts 80% of total loans in the platform;
- The share of another partner Gofingo – about 15%;
- Lithome – about 5%.
On purpose to ensure our business transparency we always provide all the information to our investors, for example financial statements of all loan originators and Groups, information about platform performance. We share all news and important updates in our Blog and regularly send newsletters to our clients. All the information our investors need we provide immediately by individual requests as well. We have never concealed any kind of information from our investors, and I believe that is why we are one of the most reliable platforms today
- Who should invest in PeerBerry and who shouldn’t?
PeerBerry is applicable for investors who can make deposits from their own accounts opened with the credit institution, payment institution or electronic money institution registered and licensed in the country, to which the regulatory and other requirements for the prevention of money laundering and terrorism financing in accordance with European Union legislation apply. Basically everyone who is at least 18 years old can become an investor on PeerBerry if he/she has a possibility to make a money transfer from any European Union bank, via Paysera, TransferWise or other payment provider which is credible for us. Individuals and companies can become investors at PeerBerry.
- What happens if your platforms have to file for bankruptcy?
Insolvency of AV Marketplace/ PeerBerry will not affect legal relations between the User, the Creditor and the Borrower. In such case AV Marketplace shall be taking all the necessary steps so that a third party takes over the administration and management of all claims.
- What should investors pay particular attention to?
First of all the transparency and stability of P2P platforms are very related with their partners – loan originators, so it is very important to check financial statements, websites, activity in the particular market, management of the company.
Look at reviews and do market research of platform via you are planning to invest, check experience of the management, results of the company, feedback of other investors. We see that investors are very active audience. They share a lot of information about their own experience with different platforms.
If you are interested to invest in real estate projects, check if it is an existing project, LTV, collateral, the company which is developing this project and history of the projects.
- How do the high interest rates that investors get?
Interest rates for listed loans on the platform are set by the loan originators. We usually just advise them according to our monitoring and what the level of interest rates we see in different markets. But the final decision is made by loan originators, according to the local market supply and their own possibilities.
Regarding the price for the borrowers, every loan originator has different structure of their services’ pricing, which usually depends on different market where they operate. The interest rates are usually high enough, especially for short term loans, so loan originators ensure that a spread between the borrowers and the interest rates for investors is enough to pay buyback guarantee. Now we offer loans with interest rates from 11% till 13,7%. Periodically we have special offers with interest rate up to 15.5%, but these cases are quite rare.
- What happens to the money invested if the investor dies?
In case of investor’s death relatives or legal representative should provide us official copy of Death Certificate (scanned version would be suitable), then after receiving it, investor’s account would be suspended and there would not be a possibility to withdraw funds out from dead investor’s account, until the legal inheritor would be identified and the documents proving such rights would be submitted.
- Do you also invest privately in P2P?
Yes, I’m quite active investor. I work in banking / financial industry for many years and I support the mindset that money should earn money. Compared to other types of investment, investing in P2P sector brings very good return. It is also good way of savings. Every investor can diversify investment by different projects, terms, countries.
- What percentage of your total assets do you invest on your platform?
I believe that every employee must first and foremost be an ambassador for the organization he/she works for. Since that is my attitude, it will not be a surprise that the main part of my savings is invested on PeerBerry. But I invest in other platforms as well. As I work in financial service industry, investing became a part of my lifestyle too.
The original version of this interview can be found on the Blog
