European P2P lending year by year, 2016 to 2025: published returns, failures and rules

Updated: 3 October 2026

Mintos published net returns of 12.6% for 2016, 4.3% for 2020, -1.2% for 2022 and 9.3% for 2024 (Mintos historical performance, read 3 October 2026). That page has no 2025 annual row. This record pairs the series with dated failures, regulation and ECB benchmarks for European P2P lending.

Mintos net returns, euro-area inflation, ECB rates and events by year, 2016 to 2025

Each row of the table holds one year: the published Mintos series, two official benchmarks and the dated events covered below.

Series figures come from the Mintos historical performance page, read 3 October 2026. HICP is the annual average rate from Eurostat, dataset updated 17 September 2026. Deposit rates come from the ECB key rates page, read 3 October 2026.

Definitions of Mintos net return, Go & Grow offered rate, Estateguru vintage return and cumulative volume

Each figure here measures something different, so four labels apply wherever a number appears.

• Mintos net return. Mintos defines it as the total annualised gross return minus the annualised loss rate. Loans are weighted by outstanding investment, bonuses and fees are left out, and write-offs on suspended lending companies use Mintos's recovery estimates (Mintos). As Mintos calculates it, the series describes the platform's loan book, and an individual account differs.
• Offered rate. For example, Go & Grow's "up to around 6% p.a." is a target on a help page dated 1 October 2025 (Bondora help).
• Vintage return. Estateguru's page of 2 October 2026 calls it actual return. It is a weighted average of returns on repaid loans in one origination year (Estateguru statistics).
• Cumulative volume. The same page lists 969,092,704 EUR funded since 2014. This running total counts every loan issued and gives no balance outstanding.

Mintos net returns of 12.6% to 11.0% from 2016 to 2019, the Terlat default and the Lendy administration

Mintos published net returns of 12.6%, 11.6%, 12.1% and 11.0% for 2016 to 2019, with annual net loss between 0.0% and -0.5%. From its January 2015 founding until early March 2020, Mintos says it operated under normal market conditions (Mintos help, updated 7 May 2026). Gross returns on the same page also slid from 12.6% in 2016 to 11.5% in 2019.

Bondora's product line changed in these years. According to its history page, Portfolio Pro dates from 2017 and Go & Grow from 2018. In January 2019 a German media article quoted Go & Grow at "until 6.75 percent p.a." (Basic Thinking). But the Bondora help page cited above says "up to around 6% p.a." for the same product. Both quotes are offered rates, dated almost seven years apart.

Two payment failures date from these years. Que Choisir reported on 19 January 2017 a large payment default tied to Terlat group programmes (Que Choisir). Wiseed investors had put 997,000 EUR into two programmes and Anaxago investors 1.7 million EUR into four. On 24 May 2019 Lendy entered administration, according to the FCA (FCA). Alternative Credit Investor reported 160 million GBP outstanding, with at least 90 million GBP in default (28 May 2019 report).

Covid-19 market conditions at Mintos in 2020, 4.3% net and the Envestio and Kuetzal bankruptcies

For 2020 Mintos published 10.6% gross, 6.3% loss and 4.3% net, and it attributes the year to the Covid-19 effect. A Mintos help page dates abnormal market conditions from mid-March 2020 and puts them at about one to three months. Cash-out times grew longer, but Mintos writes that investors "were still able to cash out over a longer period" (Mintos help).

A Mintos post of 7 September 2020 describes the procedure for problem lending companies. In that procedure Mintos suspends new funding of the company's primary market loans and blocks secondary market sales of its loans. It then negotiates a repayment schedule for amounts not yet transferred to investors (Mintos).

Envestio shows the sequence from outage to bankruptcy. In January 2020 Alternative Credit Investor reported the Estonian platform offline, with about 33 million EUR of investor funds still held (report). It adds that more than 13,000 investors were registered and that the last confirmed payouts were on 12 January. According to the report, Envestio attributed the problems to a hacking attempt. Later the Estonian business register lists Envestio SI OÜ as in bankruptcy, with a trustee role starting on 9 June 2020 (register). Kuetzal OÜ carries the same status, with a trustee role starting on 10 June 2020 (register).

Regulation milestones from the FCA's PS19/14 to the end of the ECSPR transition in 2023

Six dated steps between 2019 and 2023 set the rulebook, and the table takes each from its primary text.

On the same day the Latvian Financial and Capital Market Commission announced the Mintos licences. AS Mintos Marketplace received a licence for investment and ancillary services, and Mintos Payments a licence as an electronic money institution (FCMC). Latvijas Banka lists that entry in its investment-firm register. Still, the ECSPR dates in the table cover business crowdfunding and follow a separate calendar.

For the authority behind each platform today, see P2P lending in Europe: which authority licenses which platform.

Russia and Ukraine exposure in 2022 at Mintos, PeerBerry, Debitum and Estateguru

In the Mintos series from 2015 to 2024, only 2022 shows a negative net return: 7.1% gross, 8.2% loss and -1.2% net. According to the page notes, the 2022 loss relates to the Russian-Ukrainian war. Its help page dates abnormal market conditions from February 2022, again for about one to three months. Alternative Credit Investor reported on 25 February 2022 that Mintos had named eight originators in removing Russia and Ukraine loans from its primary market (report). On 1 April 2022 Mintos reported that it had disabled primary market investments in Russian and Ukrainian loans. It had also stopped listing new loans from those markets (Mintos). Exchange commissions of 12% "at the moment" and a rouble depreciation of "around 30%" over the past weeks appear in the same post.

Meanwhile PeerBerry gave a platform account of its own exposure. It said money transfers from Russia and Ukraine were cut starting 24 February 2022. In the same account, PeerBerry's business partners repaid 8.7 million EUR from reserves kept in EU bank accounts. Eleven partners were affected, three in Russia and eight in Ukraine. By 19 August 2022, 42.21% of war-affected loans had been repaid (PeerBerry). After that, PeerBerry reported on 16 October 2023 45.86 million EUR, or 91.3% of total outstanding war-affected obligations, repaid after 20 months (PeerBerry). PeerBerry reports it as a cumulative repayment by two partner groups.

Debitum announced on 20 July 2023 a three-party agreement on Chain Finance's Ukrainian assets. From the restructuring date the annual rate of return is 3%, against a previous average of 12%. Principal repayment follows the end of martial law (Debitum).

Estateguru's 2022 annual report mentions construction delays and cash flow issues (Estateguru). How such losses reach a portfolio is covered in the crowdlending risks guide.

E-Cash suspension at Mintos and the Zopa and Funding Circle UK retail closures, 2021 to 2022

Alternative Credit Investor reported on 26 April 2021 that Mintos had suspended the lending company E-Cash after seven days of missed settlements (report). At that time 11,516 investors held active investments. That year Mintos published 9.7% gross, 3.6% loss and 6.1% net. On 10 September 2021 Mintos staff wrote that the recovery rate had been raised to 35% (Mintos community). They added, however, that amounts still shown as in recovery should be considered lost.

Zopa announced that Zopa Bank would buy its P2P loan portfolio so that investors receive the full value of their invested balances (Zopa). Zopa's retail P2P business closed on 31 January 2022, according to Alternative Credit Investor (report).

Funding Circle paused new UK retail lending in April 2020. On 26 April 2022 it announced that its retail platform was closed, with existing loans serviced until repaid or recovered (Funding Circle). In that notice it reported an average annualised retail return of 5% after fees and bad debt since 2010.

Mintos net 10.4% in 2023 and 9.3% in 2024, Estateguru vintages and the missing 2025 row

For 2023 Mintos published 10.4% net and for 2024 9.3%, each with 0.0% loss. Net equals gross in both years because the published loss is 0.0%. No annual row for 2025 appears on that page. Data there update quarterly, so earlier rows can change with the Mintos recovery estimates. A comparison table elsewhere on the page lists 10.8% for 2023 and 10.7% for 2024. See the crowdlending returns guide for the reason this record uses the net-return series.

Other platforms publish different measures for the same years. Estateguru's page of 2 October 2026 shows actual returns of 9.46% for the 2023 vintage and 9.48% for 2024. For 2025 the page shows 8.98%, all on repaid loans (Estateguru statistics). The figure averages repaid loans only. As a result, it changes as more 2025 loans repay.

Platform terms changed as well. A 0.29% annual charge on Custom Loans applies from 16 May 2025 on Mintos. Core Loans and legacy portfolios carry 0.39% (Mintos fees, updated 1 October 2026). In addition, Bondora closed Portfolio Manager and Portfolio Pro to new investors from 27 February 2023 (Alternative Credit Investor).

ESMA's report of 22 December 2025 counts 181 providers that raised 4.25 billion EUR in the EU in 2024, with about 58% in loan-based projects. Because that count covers all providers in the report, it has a different scope from the Mintos series (ESMA). Maclear states in a FAQ of 3 August 2026 that it has connected investors with European SMEs since 2020 (Maclear). Its FAQ of 10 September 2026 says 2% of each successfully funded project goes to a Provision Fund. Maclear activates the fund to cover outstanding interest when a borrower is more than 3 days late (Maclear). Ages and volumes of ten platforms appear in the platform overview.

ECB deposit facility rate and euro-area HICP inflation, 2016 to 2025

Between 2016 and 2025 the ECB deposit facility rate changed on these dates (ECB):

• -0.40% from 16 March 2016
• -0.50% from 18 September 2019
• 0.00% from 27 July 2022, followed by 0.75% on 14 September, 1.50% on 2 November and 2.00% on 21 December
• 4.00% from 20 September 2023, the highest rate in the window
• 3.00% from 18 December 2024
• 2.00% from 11 June 2025

Eurostat's annual average euro-area HICP was 0.2% in 2016, 8.4% in 2022 and 2.1% in 2025. An ECB policy rate, the deposit facility rate differs from household savings rates. Calendar-year platform figures from Mintos sit beside HICP, an annual average of consumer prices. A subtraction therefore gives only an arithmetic difference in percentage points.

European P2P lending history FAQ

What was the Mintos net return in 2020?

Mintos published 4.3% net for 2020, from 10.6% gross less a 6.3% loss rate. It attributes the year to the Covid-19 effect. Loans are weighted by outstanding investment, bonuses and fees are left out, and an individual account differs.

How did Mintos describe cashing out during the 2020 Covid-19 disruption?

Mintos puts the abnormal market conditions that began in mid-March 2020 at about one to three months, and says cash-out took longer. Its help page gives no typical cash-out time for an individual withdrawal.

Is there a Mintos return figure for 2025?

No. On 3 October 2026 the Mintos historical performance page ended with the 2024 row. Estateguru's 8.98% for its 2025 vintage is a vintage return on repaid loans, a separate measure.

When did the EU crowdfunding regulation start to apply?

Regulation (EU) 2020/1503 applied from 10 November 2021. Providers working under national rules could continue until 10 November 2022 or until authorised. A Commission Delegated Act then extended that transition to 10 November 2023. Crowdfunding services to consumer project owners are excluded. Offers above 5 million EUR over 12 months are also excluded.

How much of PeerBerry's war-affected obligations had been repaid by October 2023?

PeerBerry reported 45.86 million EUR, or 91.3% of total outstanding war-affected obligations, repaid after 20 months on 16 October 2023. PeerBerry split this into 20.27 million EUR from Russian loans and 25.59 million EUR from Ukrainian loans.