Swaper review

For most investors, the loans offer a uniform 14% interest rate for a 1-month duration; there are also a few longer-term loans on the platform. Currently, borrowers are located in the following European countries :

• Spain
• Poland
• Denmark

Swaper also used to provide loans in Georgia and Russia, but these aren’t available as of Summer 2020.

Investors with a large portfolio will enjoy increased interest rates. Indeed, when investing more than €5,000 for more than 30 days, an additional 2% will be granted. This bumps the interest rate to a rather record-setting 16% !

This makes Swaper a very interesting platform for investors with large sums available. However, it remains to be seen whether the available loans volume will be enough for them to invest all their funds.

Indeed, for a while, Swaper had troubles handling the amount of money deposited on the portal, thus I often found myself with a large idle account balance. That was my main concern about this company, and the reason why the sum I invested there is rather low.

Fortunately, the situation has improved gradually. As I’m updating this article in Spring 2021, all my funds are invested.

Investing manually remains a problem, though. Auto-invest portfolio usually invest in all available loans, which leaves nothing for manual investors.

This has been a recurring problem at Swaper. As of Spring 2021, only ViaInvest suffers of the same kind of liquidity troubles. Ironically, the situation on this platform is actually opposite Swaper’s. Indeed, ViaInvest’s auto-invest is too slow and doesn’t manage to invest, as all available loans are taken by manual investors !

The delay for buyback guarantee used to depend on the loan duration; now, it’s 30 days for all loans. This is a shorter delay than most competitors.

Both principal and accrued interest are covered by the guarantee.

Swaper’s greatest flaw is the lack of financial disclosure by the platform’s parent group, which also owns originators on the platform.

Swaper was founded in 2016. Their office is located in Tallinn, Estonia.

The platform is a subsidiary of Wandoo Finance Group. This is very similar to Robocash, which is used to fund loans in Robocash Group’s loans portfolio.

Part of Swaper’s team is introduced on the platform’s website. Swaper’s LinkedIn page seems rather empty, though.

Many P2P platform provide details about the borrowers. It’s not the case at Swaper; however, it’s not a bit deal. Indeed, as an investor, this is rather useless information.

Swaper’s loan originators are also part of Wandoo Finance Group. Unfortunately, Wandoo Finance Group doesn’t disclose annual reports. We thus can’t assert their reliability, or even the financial health of the group as a whole.

This is a large negative, when many competitors provide make their financial statements available :

• Their direct competitor Robocash is a subsidiary of Robocash Group, which provides financial statements audited by KPMG. They show that Robocash Group has been profitable for three years.
• Placet Group issues loans at Moncera. Their financial reports are audited by Ernst & Young, and show that this loan originator is consistently profitable.
• ViaInvest provides reports audited by BDO, and is also a profitable entity.
• Lendermarket provides loans from Creditstar. Although no financial statement is available for the platform itself, CreditStar published annual financial reports and is financially very solid. However, some doubt remains about their trustworthiness, as the audit was conducted by a second-rate auditing firm.

In spite of the reports not being available publicly, screenshots were published on Kristaps Mors’ new website. They show a profit for 2019 around €366,000, a rather meager figure.

Swaper has announced plans to onboard new loan originators. Investors can only hope that they will be more transparent than Wandoo !

One positive for Swaper is that unlike most competitors, audited financial reports are available for the platform itself. To my knowledge, the only competitor which also does so it Moncera. The 2019 report was audited by Profitius, a largely unknown firm. It shows that the platform managed to be profitable, with profit slightly larger than €400,000.

Until now, Swaper’s track record is great. Unlike marketplaces such as Mintos or Viventor, no loan originator has defaulted or got suspended. As a result, investors didn’t lose any money, even during the Covid-19 epidemics.

Swaper publicly displays figures such as the number of investors or the total investments amount. Although the strong growth which took place during most of 2019 has taken a hit, the portfolio’s size keeps on increasing. Overall, loans were issued for a total value of more than 200 million euros.

While the short-term nature of most loans make it rather unnecessary, there’s a secondary market available, should you want to resell your loans.

Selling a loan is trivial. In the open investments list, simply click on the loan and confirm the sale.

Loans are always sold at face value. There’s no fee involved.

For a long time, investing manually at Swaper was impossible. Indeed, although the feature existed, there was simply no loan available to invest in; all new loans immediately got bought by auto-investors. Although the situation has somehow improved, it’s still often the case.

However, using the auto-invest is so simple to use that there’s little point in picking up loans by hand.

The auto-invest feature is really easy to configure.

One minor annoyance though, actually also found in ViaInvest‘s website is the color scheme used for toggles. Surprisingly, a red toggle actually means “on”. I really can’t figure why they don’t use more classical checkboxes instead !

Apart from that, this screen is extremely readable, as you can see in this screenshot :

Swaper’s English translation is great.

Signing up at Swaper is quick an easy. I’m a bit surprised that there’s no third-party KYC KYC (Know Your Customer) checks are procedures used by financial businesses in order to verify the identity of their clients. Most Crowdlending platforms will require a copy of an identification document (identity card, passport, driving licence); an utility bill or bank statement may be necessary as well. process using services such as Veriff or Onfido. Indeed, prospective investors only need to upload an identity document and a utility bill.

The initial account funding has to be made via SEPA transfer. The next transfers can be made via TransferWise if needed.

Swaper‘s website is pleasant to use and works well, thanks to a limited set of features.

The website offers common reporting features such as investments list or account statement. Some of this data is downloadable as an Excel file.

The FAQ A FAQ is simply a compilation of Frequently Asked Questions is rather complete, and seems to have been expanded recently.

Swaper provides an app, which is available for both Android and iPhone.

In terms of reporting, it provides an overview of your portfolio. A detailed transactions list as well as the open and closed loans list are also available.

In addition, it’s also possible to :

• Create a new auto-invest scheme, as well as edit, pause or delete an existing one.
• Invest manually
• Display the bank account used to fund your account
• Withdraw money

Overall, the app is well designed and provides an alternative way to follow your portfolio.

Swaper will send a weekly account summary, as well as a monthly newsletter.

The platform also has a blog. Most posts don’t provide much value, but several of them provided insights regarding the platform’s future and thus made for an interesting read.

There’s a live chat available, and it’s possible to get in touch with Swaper by e-mail. I sent them questions several times and their answers were always both prompt and precise.

I created my Swaper portfolio in February 2017

To become an investor you need to be at least 18 years old, be a resident of a European Economic Area (EEA) country and have a bank account in a bank situated in an EEA country. An individual is recognized as a resident if he or she is a citizen, has a residence permit or is registered as a tax payer in an EEA country.

If Swaper's parent company Wandoo Finance group published audited financial reports, it would be a great step forward. This would allow investors to assert this loan originator's financial solidity.

For now, more reliable alternatives exist. Among them is of course Robocash, which has been competing with Swaper for years. Although it suffers from poor ergonomics and interest rates are lower than at Swaper, I still consider it a better choice.

Please note that this review may contain affiliate links. It means that I will earn a commission if you decide to invest after clicking through the link – at no additional cost to you, of course -. Please understand that I have experienced all of these companies, and I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the commissions I make if you decide to invest through my links.