Esketit is a newly launched P2P platform from the owners of established consumer lender Creamfinance. It offers a return of up to 14% per annum and loans for investment issued, for example, in the Czech Republic. In the following review, we describe how the young platform stands up to the established competition, what impressed us and what we would criticize it for.
The leader of the P2P investment industry – Mintos – has not made investors happy this year. Many providers have been able to raise funding through bonds and have therefore reduced their loan supply. Yields are therefore falling fast on Mintos. And not only there. In addition, several providers have decided to set up their own platform and reduce their offer on others. Therefore, we were looking for an alternative where to place part of our P2P investments and where a stable provider with several years of market experience offers at least 12% p.a.. Esketit meets all these points.
As usual, I will add a disclaimer that we only review platforms on which we ourselves invest. You can transparently track the status of our portfolio in our quarterly P2Preports.
Who is behind it – Creamfinance Holding LTD Financial
Creamfinance Holding is a Latvian non-banking company focused on consumer loans. The company was founded in 2012 and operates in 7 countries – Latvia, Czech Republic, Poland, Denmark, Spain, Georgia, Mexico, with IT infrastructure and team in Austria.
For a platform owned by one financial group, its results are extremely important, so let’s mention that the Creamfinance Holding LTD Financial group ended 2020 with a loss of EUR 0.8 million, thanks to the impact of Covid-19. However, according to the information from the platform’s CEO Vitalijs Zalovs, the group made a profit of EUR 1.375 million in the first half of 2021. The company has its financial results audited annually by the well-known BDO.
In the ratings, ExploreP2P gave it a score of 55 out of 100, and Mintos, where Creamfinance continues to operate with some branches, rates it 5/10 for Spain and 7/10 for Latvia.
The group is therefore doing well and, according to the figures, should not default in the coming months. What we would criticise Esketit for is the fact that the platform does not yet publish quarterly loan originators results as announced. We consider transparency and regularity in the publication of results to be very important and hope that the management of the platform will work to correct this in the near future.
Registration
Setting up an account on Esketit works in cooperation with the well-known company Veriff. This ensures that your personal information doesn’t go where it shouldn’t.
The process itself consists of filling in basic personal information, verifying it via Veriff (a photo of both sides of a personal document such as an ID card is required) and a short four-question questionnaire on the planned investments (origin of the funds, your annual income, how much you plan to invest).
The verification in my case took place within minutes and there was no problem.
Platform functionalities
Esketit does not surprise the P2P investor with anything and is equipped with all modern functionalities. Autoinvest is simple to set up in a few clicks. Investments can be made from €10 and the Euro is the only currency in which the investment can be done. If the investor decides to manually select his investments for some reason, he can do so as well.
The platform also offers a secondary market to increase liquidity. There, investors can set whether to offer their loans at a discount or a premium. Currently, the secondary market only offers loans at par (no premium and no discount) or at a premium. This is a good situation from our point of view, because the supply on the primary market is abundant and for investors who need to withdraw money quickly, a small discount is enough to set. Loans will sell quickly to them that way.
Investing is without any fees for investors, including the secondary market. You will also be pleased to know that there are no interest-free periods on the platform (such as grace periods or pending payments) and the investment is interest-bearing from the day it is purchased until it is repaid (or sold on the secondary market).
What I miss on the platform is a more detailed page with statistics on the composition of your portfolio. Investors can download a list of loans in which they are invested, but they have to create another report themselves, perhaps in excel. A few charts with a breakdown of the portfolio by lender, interest rate, length of investment and its status would be nice.
Loan offering
On the Esketit platform, you will find loans from companies belonging to the Creamfinance group and also two providers that technically do not belong to the group, but have the same owners – Messrs Matisse Ansviesulis and Davis Barons. Currently, you can choose from loans from the Czech Republic, Jordan, Spain, Sri Lanka and Mexico. The interest rates offered range from 12% p.a. to 14% p.a., and the maturities range from a few days to a maximum of 3 months. However, loans may be extended by the borrower, so the maturity should be taken as a guideline only.
Esketit has only been operating for a short while so far and has managed to grow rapidly. There are plenty of loans to invest in for now, but it is also worth remembering the case of Afranga, which has not been able to cover the huge investor interest with an adequate offer. As a result, a number of investors had uninvested money available on the platform that is not appreciating in any way. Let us hope that Esketit can be more flexible in balancing the market.
Buyback obligation and other guarantees
All loans offered on the platform have a buyback obligation if the loan falls into delay of more than 60 days. However, the commitment may not be honored if the lender is in trouble, so it’s a good idea to keep an eye on the group guarantee as well. This is only offered here by lenders belonging to the Creamfinance holding company.
Buyback guarantee (or buyback obligation) means that if the loan is overdue for more than 60 days, the non-bank company buys the investor’s share and adds an amount equivalent to the interest for the entire holding period.
The group guarantee that Creamfinance has on Esketit means that the individual providers within the group are mutually liable for each other’s obligations. Thus, in the event of difficulties of one sub-provider, the other members of the group guarantee the fulfilment of its obligations on its behalf.
However, many reviewers and bloggers are overlooking the fact that any guarantee is just as strong as the person giving it. So you certainly can’t blindly rely on them and interpret them to mean that it’s virtually impossible to lose your investment.
Our Esketit portfolio
The original intention was to invest only a lower amount on Esketit and invest funds that would otherwise have ended up in Creamfinance as well, but with a lower return on Mintos. However, the intention did not last long. Due to the massive rebuys of lenders Iute Credit and Delfin Group on Mintos, more free funds needed to be placed. Since Esketit offers solid percentages, Creamfinance has been around for almost a decade, and what can we say – as a new investor, we still get +1% cashback on newly deposited funds here (which is valid up to 90 days after signup) – our account is now much higher than we planned.
We invest the vast majority (80+%) of our loan portfolio in Czech loans. The rest is then trialled into higher interest Jordan.
You can also follow the regular development of my portfolio on a quarterly basis in P2Preports.
Esketit – Bonus
Esketit offers 1% cashback to new investors for their invested deposits during 90 days after their registration. To receive the bonus the registration through the link below is sufficient.
By registering through the link below, you will also support this project.
Esketit platform summary – advantages, disadvantages
Advantages
- Esketit gives a brisk, clear impression. Easy to use.
- Diversification to traditional assets or to other P2P platforms.
- Established Creamfinance Holding behind the platform and offering its loans.
- Creamfinance financial results audited by a reliable company..
Disadvantages
- The platform is very young, less than a year old.
- Esketit is a small platform that is more easily disrupted by greater investor interest or other influences.
- Weaker ability to diversify within the platform, dependence on one large provider.
- Official disclosure of Creamfinance results so far only once a year.
Esketit resume
We see Esketit as a suitable platform for diversifying our P2P portfolio and we also use the platform when the interest rates offered elsewhere on the market drop. It is a start-up platform with all the trimmings. Support is immediate, everything works easily. On the other hand, some of the solutions would deserve more programmers’ time. For the investor, however, the Creamfinance group’s performance remains crucial here, which will determine how the platform treads further.
You can continue reading in a short interview with Esketit CEO Vitalijs Zalovs.
More links:
- Interview with Esketit CEO Vitalijs Zalovs
- Esketit overview page at P2Ptrh
- Other P2P platforms reviews
This platform reminds me a lot of Swapper in operation. Chances are it will one day become a staple like Swaper or PeerBerry