TWINO, one of Europe’s largest peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms, today announces that it is significantly expanding operations in Russia by adding new loans from its second Russian originator, onto its platform. The move is in response to high demand from both investors and borrowers.

TWINO first expanded to Russia in December 2016, offering loans from its Russian originator. To date, over 40% of TWINO investors have invested in loans from Russia, earning an average return of over 13%. This has resulted in over €150k of interest paid in just eight months. The vast majority of investors (c.60%) choose to make use of TWINO’s industry leading Payment Guarantee, which protects from borrower default risk.

TWINO’s Russian originator currently has a share of around 9.6% of the Russian online consumer lending market. By adding a second originator brand, TWINO is allowing investors to access a significantly increased number of high yield investment opportunities. TWINO’s Russian originator has issued almost € 90 million in consumer loans up to date.

Jevgenijs Kazanins, Peer-to-peer Platform Lead, at TWINO, said: “Russia is undoubtedly one of Europe’s most attractive alternative lending markets and we have seen continued high demand from our investors. We have also seen considerable demand from consumers, as the online lending market in Russia continues to grow. The vast majority of our borrowers in Russia have access to bank credit but choose alternative finance online players instead, primarily because they offer an easier and faster way to access money and superior customer service.This represents a huge opportunity for TWINO investors. As a company, we’re also the first platform to introduce  P2P lending to emerging markets such as Russia and Kazakhstan.This helps us to ensure that we’re constantly maximising returns and offering new investment opportunities to our investors.”

TWINO Group, which introduced its peer-to-peer lending platform in 2015, provides short-term unsecured consumer loans for private individuals across a number of countries including Latvia, Poland, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Russia.

The holding group - TWINO Group, which is entirely self-funded to date, has issued more than €440 million of consumer lending since it was founded in 2009. The peer-to-peer lending platform has grown to become one of the largest platforms in Europe, funding a total of €170 million loans.

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