Mintos AI Overview on 09/2025

Mintos Investment Platform – Comprehensive Analysis 2025

Mintos is a leading European 🇪🇺 marketplace for investing in loans and similar assets, connecting retail investors with loans originated by dozens of lending companies. Launched in 2015 and based in Latvia, the platform has grown to 500,000+ users with over €700 million in assets under management (as of end-2024). Investors can earn passive income from borrower interest, with Mintos advertising average returns around 10–12% per year. Key advantages include broad diversification (loans from ~30 countries), an easy-to-use auto-invest system, and the security of a regulated platform (licensed under EU MiFID) 😀. However, investors face notable risks: loan defaults and loan originator failures have led to significant funds in recovery (⚠️ about 20% of the loan portfolio is currently delayed or in recovery). Additionally, investments are not guaranteed, and economic shocks (like COVID-19 or war) have in the past reduced actual returns to near-zero in bad years. In summary, Mintos offers high-yield opportunities in exchange for higher risk, and careful diversification plus due diligence are essential for investors.

Mintos Investment Product Details

Product Type: Mintos offers investments mainly in loans (consumer, short-term, car, etc.), structured as Note financial instruments. Each Note pools a batch of 6–20 similar loans from a lending company and has an ISIN code. Investors buy these Notes (minimum €50 per Note) and earn interest paid by the underlying borrowers. The typical loans on Mintos are unsecured personal or micro-loans – about two-thirds are short-term payday-type loans (up to ~90 days), with others including installment loans, car financing, and some business or real estate loans. Loan terms range from a few weeks to 5–6 years maximum, and interest rates vary widely (roughly 5% up to 20%+ for riskier loans). Returns are generated from borrower interest payments (minus any defaults or fees) – Mintos passes the interest to investors as borrowers repay. Many loans come with a “Buyback Guarantee”: if a loan is 60+ days late, the lending company is supposed to repurchase the Note (returning principal and accrued interest) 😊. This buyback obligation can mitigate individual borrower defaults, but it is only as reliable as the lending company’s finances (it’s a promise, not a secured guarantee – several originators have failed to honor buybacks in the past ⚠️).

Legal & Structural Setup: Since mid-2022, Mintos operates under a regulated structure. AS Mintos Marketplace is licensed as an investment firm in Latvia, and it issues Notes via dedicated special purpose vehicles (e.g. “Mintos Finance No. 7”) for each lending company. This means investors are technically buying regulated debt securities backed by loan receivables. Client assets (cash and Notes) are held segregated from Mintos’s own funds, under custody rules, and Mintos is part of an investor compensation scheme that can cover up to €20,000 if Mintos were to fail to return investors’ money. Mintos also holds an Electronic Money Institution license (“Mintos Payments”) to provide IBAN accounts and handle payments. The platform’s focus has been global: it hosts lending companies from across Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America (no loans from US/UK), though many are in emerging markets (e.g. the Baltics, Balkans, Central Asia). Mintos has gradually expanded its offering beyond loans – by late 2023 it introduced corporate bonds and ETF portfolios, and in 2024 added a rental real estate product and Smart Cash (a money-market fund investment) as part of becoming a multi-asset platform. These new assets provide additional diversification, but loan investing remains the core product (loans still made up the majority of investments on the platform in 2024).

Investment Metrics: Investors can start with a low amount – €50 minimum per loan Note (previously €10 under the old system). There is no upper limit per investor, aside from availability of loans; many experienced users invest tens of thousands of euros. Loan durations vary: short-term payday loans (1–3 months) are common, while installment and car loans might run 6–36 months, and a few mortgage or business loans up to 60–72 months. The expected return on Mintos depends on portfolio mix – average interest rates on the platform are currently around 11–12%, but actual investor returns can be lower after factoring in defaults. Mintos reports that net annual returns historically average ~10%, but with fluctuations; for example, after a wave of defaults in 2020 the average net return that year dropped to only ~2.4%. On the higher end, investors focusing on riskier loans or buying discounted loans on the secondary market have reported returns above 15%, but with greater volatility.

Main Risks: Investors face credit risk (a borrower may default, and if the lending company cannot cover it via buyback, the investor bears the loss). There is lending company risk – if an originator goes bankrupt or is suspended, investor funds can get stuck in long recovery processes (this has happened with several Mintos partner lenders, leading to significant delays and partial losses). Liquidity risk is also present: while Mintos offers a secondary market, selling investments before maturity isn’t guaranteed – in a crisis or if a loan is in arrears, you may not find a buyer or might have to sell at a discount and pay a fee. Additionally, investing in non-euro loans (some Notes are in currencies like PLN, KZT, etc.) exposes one to currency risk – Mintos allows multi-currency investing but does not hedge currency fluctuations. In the worst case, an investor could face total loss of a particular loan investment if both the borrower and loan originator fail and recoveries yield nothing. Mintos itself does not insure against investment losses (the €20k Latvian protection scheme only covers Mintos’s insolvency, not borrower defaults). Investors should understand these risks and diversify broadly on the platform to mitigate them.

Mintos Company Background and Regulation

Founding and Ownership: Mintos was founded in 2014 by Martins Sulte (CEO) and Martins Valters (CFO/COO) in Riga, Latvia. Sulte, an ex-investment banker, and Valters, an experienced finance professional, launched Mintos in 2015 as a fintech startup connecting investors to loan portfolios. Over the years Mintos attracted a wide shareholder base. Notably, the largest shareholder is Latvian investor Aigars Kesenfelds (through his company AS ALPPES Capital), who owns ~30.5% of Mintos. Kesenfelds was a co-founder of the 4finance group (a major European microloan company) and invested early in Mintos via his venture fund (previously named Skillion Ventures). Apart from the founders and Kesenfelds, Mintos has hundreds of smaller shareholders due to crowdfunding rounds. The company raised €6.5 million in 2020 from over 6,000 crowd investors (at the time, the largest ever equity crowdfunding in continental Europe). In April 2024, Mintos raised another €3.1 million via Crowdcube from 3,300 investors, showing strong community backing. It also secured €2 million in debt financing in 2024 from FlyCap, a Latvian growth capital fund. These funds have supported Mintos’s expansion and product development.

Management and Team: The company is led by CEO Martins Sulte, who is often the public face of Mintos, and COO Martins Valters. They are backed by a team including Chief Risk Officer Marcis Gogis, General Counsel Inese Lazdovska, and other seasoned professionals (Mintos’ board has five members including the two founders). The team grew significantly alongside the platform’s user base – from ~60 employees in 2018 to over 160 employees by 2023, with offices in Riga (HQ) and previously smaller offices in Poland and Mexico to support those markets. Mintos also partners with industry players for certain services; for example, it partnered with fintech API provider Upvest to power its ETF and stock investment offerings in 2023, and with BlackRock for managing idle cash via a money-market fund (Smart Cash product).

Legal Structure: The operating entity is AS Mintos Marketplace, a joint-stock company in Latvia. It is a subsidiary of AS Mintos Holdings, which consolidates the Mintos group. Another key entity is SIA Mintos Payments, a Mintos-owned company that holds an Electronic Money Institution license (enabling Mintos to offer personal IBAN accounts and handle payments). These entities allow Mintos to offer a broad range of regulated financial services.

Regulation and Licenses: Mintos is regulated under EU financial laws. In August 2021, Mintos received its investment firm license from the Latvian Financial and Capital Market Commission (FKTK). This license (passportable across the EU) authorizes Mintos to execute client orders, trade financial instruments, manage investment portfolios, provide investment advice, and place financial instruments without underwriting. It also covers ancillary services like safekeeping client assets and currency exchange related to investments. Achieving this license was a major milestone; Mintos underwent a transition period in 2022 to convert its unregulated loan assignments into regulated Notes with full MiFID II compliance. Mintos is supervised by the Latvijas Banka (Bank of Latvia, which absorbed the FKTK) and must adhere to strict EU investor protection rules. Additionally, Mintos is a member of Latvia’s national investor compensation scheme, which can compensate investors up to €20,000 in case Mintos fails to return client assets due to insolvency. The platform also complies with the EU PRIIPs regulation (providing Key Information Documents for its Notes) and AML/KYC laws. Notably, UK investors are not accepted on Mintos post-Brexit, as Mintos is not registered with the UK FCA. Overall, Mintos’s regulatory status provides a higher level of transparency and oversight compared to unlicensed peer-to-peer platforms, though it also means more stringent onboarding (investors must pass an appropriateness test to ensure they understand P2P risks before using certain features).

Mintos Company Volumes and Performance Results

Funding Volumes: Mintos is the largest loan investment marketplace in Europe by volume. Since inception, it has facilitated over €11.8 billion in loan investments (cumulative as of 2025). This huge volume comes from millions of individual loans financed via the platform. Milestones in recent years include crossing €5 billion invested by early 2020 and €10 billion around 2023 (despite a slowdown during 2020–2021). In 2024 alone, Mintos saw approximately €0.7 billion of new investments, reflecting moderate growth as it expanded into new asset classes. The platform reports that loan investments remain the majority of their business, though bonds and other assets gained traction in 2024.

Investors and Projects: Mintos has a broad investor base of retail users from across Europe (and beyond). As of late 2024, over 500,000 investors have signed up on Mintos. Active investors (those currently investing) number in the tens of thousands; Mintos added ~43,000 new investors in 2024 alone. The typical investor portfolio is a few thousand euros diversified across many loans. Because loans are relatively small (often €100–€500 each from the borrower’s side), the number of funded loans on Mintos is enormous – the platform has likely funded well over 20 million loan pieces to date (not officially stated, but implied by volume). For example, by mid-2018 Mintos had already facilitated 1 million loans, and growth accelerated since. Now in 2025, investors collectively hold hundreds of thousands of active Notes at any time. The average investment per Note from investors is about €50–100, which means each loan is typically split among dozens of investors, spreading risk.

Returns to Investors: The headline returns on Mintos are high compared to traditional savings – the average interest rate offered on primary market loans is about 11–12% (currently ~11.5% in Q3 2025). Mintos claims the average net annual return for investors (after defaults and fees) tends to be around 10%. Many long-term users report returns in the 8–12% range. However, realized returns have varied by year: in strong years (2017–2019) typical returns were ~10%+, while during the COVID-19 crisis and its aftermath, returns dropped significantly due to borrower payment holidays and several lender failures (net platform-wide return was only ~2.4% in 2020). By 2022–2023, performance recovered; Mintos indicates that by 2022 returns rebounded to near 8–10% as economic conditions normalized. Importantly, returns differ per investor depending on strategy – those who chased higher-yield loans (15%+ interest) sometimes ended up with more defaults and lower net gains, whereas a balanced approach yielded around 10%. Mintos also runs promotional cashback campaigns which can boost short-term returns. The top performers on Mintos have achieved ~15–18% by trading on the secondary market and exploiting discounts, but such strategies carry added risk. On the other hand, some investors have had negative outcomes if a large portion of their portfolio was tied up in a failed lender (e.g. investors with heavy exposure to a defaulted originator might face losses that drag returns below zero in worst cases).

Loan Performance and Defaults: The health of Mintos’s portfolio depends on both borrowers repaying and lending companies staying solvent. As of 2024, about 75–80% of loans on Mintos are in good standing (current or repaying normally), while 20–25% are underperforming (either late, in recovery, or pending payment). This underperformance ratio is relatively high – it reflects several lending company failures in recent years which left many loans unpaid. Mintos publishes a “Funds in Recovery” figure, which has been in the tens of millions of euros. For instance, during the pandemic in 2020, roughly 25% of the entire loan book’s value got stuck in pending or default status. Since then Mintos has worked to recover money: by late 2022 they reported progress in recovering war-affected loans (e.g. €10 million repaid from Russian lenders by March 2023). Nonetheless, some defaults are permanent. The platform’s historical loss rate is hard to pin down because recoveries can take years; Mintos has indicated an expected long-term loss rate of 0.5–1.5% annually, but this was exceeded in 2020–2021. For example, one major group default (Finko/Varks in 2020) caused multi-year losses that significantly hit investor returns. As of 2025, Mintos continues to pursue recoveries from several suspended lending companies – it warns that final loss on some might be 50–75% of the affected funds. On a positive note, loans that are not impacted by such issues have generally performed as expected, and interest payments have been received monthly on thousands of loans without incident. Mintos also discloses overdue loan data: typically a small percentage (1–5%) of loans are 1–60 days late at any given time (before any buyback kicks in). Once loans pass 60 days late, buyback should occur – if it doesn’t, those loans move to recovery status. Investors should be aware that portfolio performance can deteriorate quickly if an originator encounters financial trouble, as seen in a few high-profile cases on the platform.

Financial Results of the Company: Mintos’s own financial performance has been mixed, reflecting growth investments and external shocks. In 2022, Mintos swung to its first annual profit, earning a €188,000 net profit (after a €2.5 million loss in 2021). This was achieved despite a 5.6% drop in revenue in 2022 (down to €9.19 million) as war and the licensing transition temporarily slowed business. By 2023, Mintos’s revenue started growing again (Mintos reported ~€11.1 million revenue in 2023) and the company remained around break-even. In 2024, Mintos’s revenue increased ~+9% to €12.1 million, thanks to more diversified income streams (including new products). However, Mintos made a net loss of €2.1 million in 2024. The loss was anticipated, as Mintos invested heavily into launching new asset classes, expanding its tech platform, and marketing. Operating costs (IT, compliance, and a team that grew to 180+ people) grew faster than revenues in the short term. Notably, Mintos generated income from eight different sources in 2024 (not just loan commissions). It still has a solid equity base and cash reserves, bolstered by the 2024 funding round and loan from FlyCap. The balance sheet at end-2024 showed a 54% equity ratio (low debt) and healthy liquidity (current ratio ~2.16). In summary, Mintos is financially stable but is currently reinvesting for growth. Investors can take some comfort that the platform has survived major challenges (Covid downturn, loss of some markets due to war) and remains the market leader in its segment. The company’s goal is to return to profitability as the multi-asset model scales – Mintos’s outlook for 2025 includes launching direct stock investing and accelerating investor growth across the EU.

Mintos Risk Approach and Management

Mintos has developed a robust (though not infallible) risk management framework to select and monitor the loan offerings on its platform. Lending Company Selection: Mintos does not fund projects directly; instead it onboards third-party Loan Originators (lending companies) whose loans are then offered to investors. Before partnering, Mintos conducts due diligence on these companies – evaluating their financial statements, loan book quality, management, and credit policies. Only lenders that meet certain standards are allowed on the platform. Over the years, Mintos has added 60+ lending partners but also rejected or removed many that didn’t perform. For example, if a lender faces financial distress, Mintos may suspend new loans from them (to contain risk) and focus on recoveries. This happened in cases like Finko (where Mintos suspended all group entities after one subsidiary defaulted). Mintos also requires each lending company to maintain a “Skin in the Game”, keeping typically 5–10% of each loan on their own balance sheet, to align incentives. This ensures originators have capital at risk and encourages prudent lending.

Mintos Risk Score: A key tool Mintos uses is its proprietary Mintos Risk Score, introduced in 2020 and updated quarterly for each lending company. This is a numeric score (0 to 10, with 10 being lowest risk) that aggregates four sub-scores: Loan Portfolio Performance, Loan Servicer Efficiency, Buyback Strength, and Cooperation Structure. The sub-scores examine factors like the lender’s default rates, profitability, equity capitalization, how reliably they fulfill buyback obligations, and legal arrangements (e.g. group guarantees or collateral pledged to Mintos). Mintos monitors each company continuously; scores are reviewed every quarter and can be adjusted immediately if a material event occurs (such as a sudden default or regulatory issue at the lender). For instance, if a lender’s financial health worsens or it delays payments, Mintos will downgrade its Risk Score and may freeze new investments for that lender’s Notes. The Risk Score is published openly to investors and provides a comparative risk level – as of 2024, scores ranged roughly from 3 to 9 for active lenders, with very few scoring in the highest tier (reflecting the fact that many Mintos lenders are in relatively high-risk markets). Mintos emphasizes that this score is not a guarantee or a credit rating, but a helpful metric. Investors are encouraged to use it to filter their investments (e.g. some avoid lenders with score < 5).

Due Diligence & Onboarding: Mintos’s risk team performs an extensive review when a new lending company joins. This includes analyzing audited financials, loan performance data, management background, and often on-site visits. Mintos sometimes requires extra safeguards before listing loans – for example, parent company guarantees, or pledges of certain assets. In one case, Mintos negotiated group-level guarantees (cross-collateralization) for lenders that are part of a larger holding company (though in practice these didn’t always prevent losses, as seen with Finko’s collapse despite a group guarantee). Mintos typically starts with a lower volume for new lenders and increases limits as trust is built. If a lender fails to meet reporting requirements or breaches covenants, Mintos can suspend them. Over 2019–2022, Mintos had to suspend around 9 lending companies due to problems ranging from license revocation to fraud accusations. Each suspension triggers a focused recovery effort.

Ongoing Monitoring: Once on the platform, lending companies must provide regular reports to Mintos (often monthly) on their lending portfolio, collections, and financial status. Mintos keeps track of metrics like each lender’s pending payments (any delays in transferring borrower repayments to Mintos) and publicly shows this data to investors. If pending payments grow or a lender’s cash flow looks strained, Mintos will often issue updates on its blog and take action. For example, Mintos has a special status for lenders in trouble – “suspended” or “in recovery” – and it freezes new investments and the secondary trading of those Notes to prevent further exposure. Mintos’s team then works with the lender (or its administrators) to recover as much as possible, possibly via legal action. The platform also updates the Mintos Risk Score accordingly outside the normal schedule if needed.

Risk Mitigation Tools: Mintos has implemented various protective measures. The Buyback obligation (mentioned earlier) is a core risk mitigator – by contract, lenders must buy back loans 60+ days overdue, thus shielding investors from individual borrower defaults. However, Mintos acknowledges this is not 100% reliable, so they encourage diversification and provide data on each lender’s buyback fulfillment track record. Mintos also sometimes withholds a portion of payments to offset recoveries (e.g. taking a slice of a lender’s ongoing repayments to distribute to defaulted loan investors – this was done in some recovery cases). Importantly, since becoming regulated, Mintos now issues a Prospectus for each lending company’s Note program, approved by the regulator. These prospectuses (available on Mintos and the regulator’s website) detail the structure, risk factors, and financial info of the lender, giving investors transparency. Mintos’s investor Help Center and blog also provide extensive risk disclosures and even case studies of past lender failures. The platform’s terms include cooperation structure provisions that aim to secure investor rights – for instance, requiring lenders to establish pledges over borrower receivables in some cases, so if they default, investors have legal claim to underlying loan repayments.

Portfolio Filters and Limits: From an investor perspective, Mintos allows setting filters to manage risk exposure – you can cap how much goes to any single loan or lender, select only certain countries or credit score ranges, etc. Mintos Strategies (auto-invest) also enforce diversification rules. For example, the conservative strategy might limit exposure per lender to a small percentage. Mintos itself doesn’t guarantee diversification automatically (investors must configure it), but it provides guidance (such as recommending to invest in at least 50–100 different loans for a stable outcome). By offering loans across 30+ countries and many sectors (consumer, SME, car, real estate), Mintos enables geographic risk spreading, though it warns that many lenders operate in similar high-risk segments (so diversification can sometimes be an illusion if multiple lenders are impacted by the same macro event).

In summary, Mintos’s approach to risk is proactive: thorough upfront vetting, continuous monitoring via the Risk Score system, and intervention (suspensions, legal recovery) when things go wrong. Despite these efforts, investing on Mintos remains high-risk – the platform itself notes that “the value of your investment may fall or rise, and you may lose all invested capital”. Investors should utilize the information Mintos provides (Risk Scores, financial reports of lenders, country risk insights) and not rely solely on Mintos’s vetting. The multiple lender failures in 2019–2022 served as a learning experience, and Mintos has tightened standards since, focusing on more solid lending companies and requiring greater transparency. Future platform stability will depend on how well Mintos can anticipate lender problems and maintain a balanced portfolio of loan originators.

Mintos Platform Functionality and Features

Mintos is known for its user-friendly platform with a variety of tools to help investors manage their portfolios. The interface is available via web and also a mobile app (iOS and Android), allowing convenient account access on the go. The website supports 10 languages (including English, Latvian, German, Spanish, French, etc.) to cater to its pan-European audience. Below are key functional features:

Auto-Invest & Strategies: Mintos offers both custom auto-invest and pre-defined Mintos Strategies 🤖. The Auto-Invest feature lets investors set their own criteria (interest rate, loan term, countries, specific lenders, etc.) and the system will automatically invest available cash into matching loans. For a more hands-off approach, Mintos provides strategy portfolios: Conservative, Balanced (Core), and High-Yield. These strategies automatically diversify across many loans and lenders according to risk level – e.g. Conservative sticks to higher-rated lenders, High-Yield goes for higher interest (risk) loans. Using a Mintos Strategy simplifies investing (essentially one-click diversification), though it carries a small management fee (0.39% per year). Many new investors choose a strategy to get started, then later fine-tune with custom settings. Auto-invest ensures cash is quickly reinvested as soon as old loans repay, minimizing idle cash drag.

Secondary Market: Mintos has a very active Secondary Market where investors can buy or sell loan investments (Notes) to each other. This feature provides liquidity and flexibility – if an investor wants to exit a position early, they can list it for sale on the secondary market. Buyers can sometimes snag loans at a discount (or pay a premium) depending on supply and demand. As of 2025, over €446 million worth of loans have been traded on Mintos’s secondary market since launch. About 85% of investors have used the secondary market at least once, underlining its importance for liquidity. Mintos charges a 0.85% fee for the seller when you sell investments on the secondary market. There are filters to help find specific loans on sale (by interest, status, discount, etc.). The secondary market is especially handy if you need to rebalance or cash out early – for example, an investor can sell longer-term loans to free up cash, albeit possibly at a small markdown to attract buyers. During normal times, liquidity is decent; but note that in crisis periods (e.g. March 2020), buyers evaporated, so it’s not as liquid as a bank account. Still, the combination of monthly interest payments from loans and the secondary market has allowed many investors to manage cash flow and make partial withdrawals when needed.

Portfolio Dashboard and Reporting: Mintos provides a comprehensive investor dashboard with real-time data on the portfolio. Investors can see statistics like weighted average interest rate, next payment dates, diversification breakdown by country or lender, etc. There are charts for portfolio growth over time and income received. A “Pending Payments” section shows if any funds are awaiting transfer from lending companies. Mintos also offers account statements and tax reports (an annual income statement for tax filing). These can be downloaded, which is convenient. The platform’s UX is often praised for clarity – it’s easy to check which loans are current, which are late, and which have been bought/sold on secondary. Notifications alert users of incoming payments or any important news (like a suspended lender). For any questions, investors can access a detailed Help Center and even a Community forum moderated by Mintos where users discuss issues.

Diversification and Allocation Tools: In addition to auto-invest settings, Mintos introduced features like Diversification Mode (in older versions) which automatically spread your investments evenly among all available loans meeting your criteria. Now, Mintos Strategies inherently diversify by capping exposure per loan and per lender. You can also set max exposure per lending company in custom auto-invest (e.g. not more than 10% to any single lender) to avoid concentration risk. A “Mintos Risk Score” filter lets you exclude lower-scored lenders if desired. The platform makes it easy to invest small amounts (€50 increments) into hundreds of loans, achieving a broad spread even with a modest total portfolio.

Buyback Guarantee & Notifications: For loans with a buyback guarantee, Mintos highlights this in the loan details. If a loan is overdue >60 days, it is marked for buyback. Mintos will credit the investor’s account once the lending company fulfills the buyback (covering principal + interest). If a buyback is delayed, that loan goes into “pending payment” status. Mintos keeps a Running Tally on each lender’s page of how much is pending or recovered, which is a unique transparency feature – investors can see if a particular lender has a growing backlog of buybacks (a potential warning sign). Mintos also sometimes provides “Recovery Updates” via email/blog for investors affected by a troubled lender, detailing steps taken.

Currency Options: Mintos allows investment in multiple currencies. You can fund your account in 9 currencies, including EUR, GBP, USD (historically), PLN, CZK, KZT, etc. However, as Mintos warns, investing in loans denominated in anything other than euro exposes you to FX risk. They do provide an in-platform currency exchange feature so you can convert, say, GBP to EUR to invest in euro loans. The currency exchange has a fee (about 0.5% spread). Many investors choose to stick to EUR loans (the majority of Mintos loans are euro-denominated) to avoid currency volatility.

Additional Products: Beyond P2P loans, Mintos’s platform functionality expanded in 2023–2024. Investors can now buy Mintos diversified bond portfolios and ETF portfolios similar to robo-advisors (Mintos partnered with a broker to enable fractional ETF investing). The interface for these is integrated – you can see all assets in one portfolio. Mintos also launched Smart Cash, which is essentially a money market fund (BlackRock ICS Euro Liquidity Fund) accessible via Mintos. Smart Cash lets you park idle cash and earn ~3–4% interest with daily liquidity, directly through Mintos’s dashboard. This is a notable feature because it addresses the common issue of cash drag in P2P investing by giving a low-risk option for uninvested funds. Mintos charges a small fee (0.19%) for Smart Cash and in return handles the fund transactions.

Investor Protection Features: Being a regulated platform, Mintos offers some protections not found on unlicensed sites. For example, segregated accounts ensure investor money is separate from Mintos’s funds. If Mintos were to collapse, an appointed custodian or administrator would take over servicing the Notes, and the Investor Compensation Scheme could reimburse uninvested cash or missing assets up to €20k per investor. Mintos also provides detailed information documents (prospectuses and Key Information Documents) for each Note program, which is a level of transparency akin to investing in bonds or funds.

Community and Support: Mintos maintains a Trustpilot rating around 4.0/5 stars, and it actively responds to user feedback. The platform has a large community of investors (forums, blogs, and social media groups) who share strategies and discuss issues. On Mintos’s own site, the Mintos Community section and blog provide expert articles, monthly updates on lending companies, and even invite user questions for Q&As with the CEO. Customer support is available via email and has been generally responsive, though during crises (like 2020) users experienced slower response times due to high inquiry volumes.

Overall, Mintos’s functionality is considered one of the most advanced in the P2P industry. Features like auto-diversification, a busy secondary market, multi-currency support, and integration of various asset classes make it a comprehensive investment platform. The trade-off for this complexity is that new investors have a bit of a learning curve – but Mintos caters to beginners with its strategies and to experts with granular controls. The platform’s evolution (adding things like IBAN accounts, card deposits, etc.) shows a drive to become a one-stop investing app for retail investors looking for passive income.

Mintos Fees and Pricing Structure

One of Mintos’s selling points is its investor-friendly fee structure – most services for investors are free or low-cost, ensuring that the bulk of returns flow to the investor 😃. The platform makes money primarily by charging fees to the lending companies. Here is a breakdown of Mintos’s pricing:

Fees for Investors:

• Investing Fees: €0 fee for manual investing in loans, bonds, ETFs, or real estate offers on Mintos. There are no signup fees and no annual account fees for investors. Mintos does charge small management fees if you use their automated products: the Mintos Strategy portfolios (Core/Conservative/High-Yield) have a 0.39% per annum service fee, and custom auto-invest portfolios have a 0.29% p.a. fee. These fees are charged monthly based on your invested balance in those strategies. Notably, if you invest manually loan-by-loan, there is no fee at all for lending investments – Mintos introduced the strategy fees as a way to monetize their value-added automation, while keeping manual investing free. For the Smart Cash money-market fund product, Mintos charges 0.19% per annum on the amount in Smart Cash. These percentages are relatively low (for example, 0.39% on a €1000 portfolio is €3.90 per year) and are deducted from interest earned, so investors still see a net advertised return.

• Deposit & Withdrawal: Mintos allows free deposits and withdrawals via bank transfer in Euros. There is no fee to withdraw money to your bank (most Euro SEPA withdrawals arrive in 1–2 days). However, if you choose to deposit by credit/debit card or Apple/Google Pay, Mintos applies a 2% fee on the deposit amount. This is basically covering card processing costs. Most users avoid that by using free bank transfers. Mintos does not charge for currency conversion explicitly, but they have a currency exchange spread starting from 0.5% of the amount exchanged. So if you convert currencies within the platform, keep in mind there’s that cost. Maintaining your account is free; Mintos only charges an Inactivity Fee of €2.90 per month if your account has had no investments or withdrawals for 6 consecutive months and you have a balance. This is to discourage dormant accounts and cover any maintenance.

• Secondary Market Fee: If you sell loans on the secondary market, Mintos charges a 0.85% transaction fee on the amount sold. Buying on the secondary market is free (the buyer pays no fee, only the seller). There are no fees for listing; the 0.85% is only when a sale successfully occurs. There’s no fee for holding to maturity, of course.

• Other Potential Fees: Mintos has a few minor fees like inactivity (mentioned above), and currency withdrawal fees if you withdraw in a non-EUR currency (since those might go through intermediaries – but withdrawing in EUR is free). Importantly, Mintos introduced a clause for “Recovery Fees” – if Mintos incurs costs to recover funds from a defaulted lender (e.g. legal fees), they reserve the right to deduct those from the recovered amounts, up to a limit (never more than what’s recovered). They have rarely used this so far, but it’s disclosed for transparency.

Mintos is quite transparent about investor fees. The fee schedule is published clearly on their website, and any changes are announced in advance. The philosophy, as they state, is that investors “shouldn’t lose part of their earned returns to commissions” – hence no general investing fee.

Fees for Lending Companies (Originators):
Mintos primarily generates revenue by charging the loan originators for access to investor capital. These fees are not directly visible to investors, but Mintos’s financial reports shed some light. In 2024, about 73.6% of Mintos’s €12.1m revenue came from service fees charged to the lenders. Typically, Mintos takes a percentage of the loan interest or principal from the lending company. For example, if a lender is offering 12% interest to investors, the borrower might actually be paying 15% and Mintos keeps the difference, or Mintos might charge a commission (e.g. 4% of loan volume) to the lender. Historically, this model meant investors got the interest rate they see, and Mintos’s cut came on top of that from the lending company’s side. Mintos also charges one-time setup or listing fees to new lending partners and other fees like payment processing fees to the companies. In 2024, Mintos expanded revenue streams including fees from arranging bond issues for some lending companies, currency exchange commissions, etc., but the bulk is still from loan originators paying to use the platform.

From the originator perspective, Mintos is a funding source. Many lenders are willing to pay significant fees to raise capital on Mintos because it’s often cheaper or more flexible than bank financing. However, if Mintos’s fees are too high, that could pressure lenders’ margins (and potentially their stability). The exact fee terms per lender are confidential, but as investors we know that Mintos’s incentives are aligned with bringing more volume (more loans funded means more fees for them). There’s a possible conflict of interest: Mintos could be tempted to onboard higher-risk lenders to increase volume. The platform counters this by saying long-term sustainability is also in its interest, and by curating who they allow.

Pricing Transparency: Mintos generally scores well on transparency. All investor fees are openly published, and Mintos has kept its promise of no direct investor charges for basic investing. Changes such as the introduction of strategy fees in 2022 were communicated clearly and these fees are relatively low. The platform even itemizes some small things – e.g. if you have an idle account and incur an inactivity fee, it will show up in your transactions. On the lending side, while the exact fee percentage isn’t public, Mintos does disclose in its annual report the breakdown of revenue: e.g. in 2024, service fees from loans were ~€8.9m, net interest from managing client funds was €1.8m (they earn interest by holding uninvested cash in a BlackRock fund), and the remaining ~€1.4m came from other fees (secondary market fees, currency fees, etc.). This gives a sense that Mintos’s business model relies mostly on loan originator commissions. For investors, this is good because you’re not paying those costs directly – but one should be aware that ultimately borrowers are paying high interest to cover everyone’s cut, which could influence default risk.

Mintos does not charge any performance fees or carry on investor profits – your interest earned is yours (minus any withholding tax, see FAQ section for tax). There are also no entry or exit fees other than what’s mentioned (secondary market selling). This straightforward pricing means if an investor earns 10% interest and maybe pays 0.3–0.4% in strategy fee, the net is ~9.6%. There are no sneaky monthly account fees or deposit fees (if using bank transfer).

In summary, Mintos offers a low-cost platform for investors, funded mainly by the borrowing side. Always keep an eye on any new fees (for instance, if Mintos were to introduce fees for certain premium features), but as of 2025 the cost structure remains very competitive in the P2P industry. It’s advisable to avoid inactivity and use bank transfers to not incur unnecessary charges. The fee model is clearly documented, reflecting Mintos’s approach to be transparent and fair in its pricing ✅.

Negative Publicity about Mintos

Like many P2P lending platforms, Mintos has faced its share of controversies and criticisms, especially during the turbulent period of 2019–2022. We highlight the main points of negative publicity or red flags that investors should be aware of (⚠️ important considerations for decision-making):

Loan Originator Failures and Stuck Funds: The biggest issues in Mintos’s history stem from certain lending companies defaulting or failing to repay investors. In 2019–2020, several Mintos-originated lenders either went bankrupt or had licenses withdrawn, leading to “suspended” loans on Mintos that investors could not cash out. A notable case was Varks (Armenia) – its license was revoked in 2020, which triggered the collapse of its parent group Finko that operated multiple lenders on Mintos. Investors had around €~50 million in outstanding loans with Finko group companies; those went into a long recovery process. Mintos had promoted a group guarantee for Finko, but in practice recovery has been slow (to date many affected investors have not fully recovered funds). Other lender failures include Aforti (Poland, suspended in 2019 due to non-payment), GetBucks (various African countries, defaulted on obligations), Eurocent (Poland, defaulted earlier), Rapido (Spain), Capital Service (Poland), and more. Some investors have had money “frozen” for years in these cases – e.g. one Trustpilot reviewer in 2023 lamented that their funds tied to Finko and GetBucks have been frozen for over four years with minimal recovery ⚠️. The prevalence of these issues has drawn criticism from the community and blogs. The P2P Independent Forum has threads warning new investors about Mintos’s past defaults and the large sums still pending recovery. While Mintos does publish updates on recoveries, the pace can be frustratingly slow, and in some cases only small fractions might eventually be recovered. This has undoubtedly hurt Mintos’s reputation among early investors.

“Pending Payments” and Cash Drag: Another criticism has been the issue of Pending Payments, where loan originators delay sending money that borrowers have repaid. In 2020, many Mintos investors saw increasing pending amounts – effectively, you earned interest on a loan but couldn’t reinvest or withdraw it because the originator hadn’t forwarded the funds yet. At one point in mid-2020, pending payments across Mintos reached over €20 million platform-wide. Some lenders routinely had delays, which raised concerns about their liquidity. Mintos introduced a dashboard for pending payments and eventually started charging penalty interest to lenders for excessive delays, which helped somewhat. Nevertheless, the experience of seeing funds stuck in limbo was a negative for investor trust. Negative reviews often cite “Mintos holding my money in pending for months” as a complaint. Mintos explained that pending payments are largely due to issues on the lender’s side (technical or financial), not Mintos deliberately holding money. But to the investor, it’s money that’s inaccessible. They have improved this by stricter oversight post-license, yet it remains something to watch.

Unreliable Buyback and Risk of Originator Default: Mintos’s vaunted Buyback Guarantee has been called into question by many experienced investors. The guarantee is only as good as the lending company’s ability to honor it. Unfortunately, several lending companies could not fulfill buybacks once they hit financial trouble. For instance, lenders like Alexcredit (Ukraine) and Capital Service stopped fulfilling buybacks well before being officially suspended, leaving investors with loans that were both defaulted and without buyback coverage. P2P bloggers have criticized Mintos for perhaps giving a false sense of security with the term “guarantee” – a more accurate term might be buyback obligation or promise. Mintos has since added warnings that buyback is not a sure safeguard. Critics say Mintos should have been quicker to remove risky lenders and that it sometimes kept adding loans from a lender even as red flags appeared (perhaps due to their incentive to earn fees). This has been a point of heated discussion in forums. To Mintos’s credit, they did tighten criteria and even hired a dedicated recovery team in 2021 to deal with such defaults.

Conflict of Interest Concerns: A significant and somewhat unique criticism of Mintos is the overlap between Mintos’s shareholders and some of the loan originators on the platform. Research by independent bloggers uncovered that a few large lending groups on Mintos were owned (partly or fully) by investors who also had stakes in Mintos itself. For example, Mintos’s largest shareholder Aigars Kesenfelds has ties to multiple lenders that have operated on Mintos (such as Mogo/Eleving, and formerly some Finko companies via Skillion/Grumpy Investments). The concern is that Mintos might be inclined to list or continue funding loans from related-party lenders even if their quality is questionable, to support those businesses. In fact, data suggests that over 50% of all funds currently in recovery on Mintos are linked to lenders that had shareholders in common with Mintos’s own shareholders (i.e., the problematic lenders were often those “close” to Mintos insiders) ⚠️. This is a glaring statistic cited by P2P Empire and others. It raises questions about whether Mintos was too lenient or slow to act on certain partners. Mintos has publicly responded that all lending companies, related or not, undergo the same risk assessment and that having industry investors on their cap table helped them grow – but the perception of conflict lingers. For prospective investors, this is a red flag: do your own due diligence on each lender; don’t assume Mintos’s interests are fully aligned with yours on every listing.

Regulatory and Legal Issues: In terms of official sanctions, Mintos has largely stayed on the right side of regulators by proactively getting licensed. We did not find records of any fines or penalties from the Latvian authorities so far. However, prior to licensing, some EU regulators issued warnings that affected Mintos. For instance, Germany’s BaFin in 2020 ordered Mintos to cease offering investments to German residents for a period, because under German law the old assignment-based loans were seen as securities being offered without a prospectus. Mintos complied by temporarily pausing German signups until the new Notes setup with prospectus was in place. Similarly, in the UK, as mentioned, Mintos cannot market to the public without FCA authorization, so it had to exclude UK investors. There have been no known frauds or platform-level scandals implicating Mintos itself – the negative news mostly revolves around the lending companies on it. One quasi-legal incident: in 2019, a small Polish lender (Aforti) that defaulted accused Mintos of improper handling of payments (Mintos strongly denied this and said Aforti simply didn’t pay). This led to some legal exchanges, but ultimately Mintos pursued Aforti in court for the owed funds. Some investors were critical of how Mintos communicated during these crises – at times info was sparse, which Mintos acknowledged and improved upon by creating a public Recovery page detailing each case.

War Impact and Geopolitical Risk: The Russia-Ukraine war in 2022 was an external event that hit Mintos. Mintos had multiple Russian and Ukrainian lenders; when war broke out, Mintos swiftly suspended all Russian and Belarusian loans and stopped new investments in Ukrainian loans. This was the right move, but it left investors with significant sums frozen in those regions. Due to sanctions and currency controls, recovering that money has been very difficult. Mintos reported that the war caused an 18% drop in monthly revenue in early 2022 and was a major operational challenge. They did manage to get some funds out of Russia over 2022–2023 (as noted, ~€10m by Mar 2023), but a lot remains pending, especially from one large Russian lender (EcoFinance). This situation was covered in alternative finance media and highlighted the political risk involved in an internationally operating platform. Mintos’s quick compliance with sanctions was positive, but investors with loans in affected countries suffered delays/losses through no fault of Mintos or the borrowers, but due to geopolitics.

Customer Service and Communication: During periods of trouble, some users complained about poor communication from Mintos. For example, in early COVID times and during the war suspension, Mintos had to triage a huge volume of investor questions. Response times lagged, and initial communications were sometimes vague (“we are monitoring situation X”). This led to frustration and negative reviews about customer support. However, Mintos took steps to improve transparency: they started doing live AMA (Ask Mintos Anything) sessions, published detailed blog posts about each suspended lender’s status, and put out quarterly updates on Risk Scores. By 2023, Mintos’s communication was more proactive, although one can still find forum posts criticizing delays in getting responses. Another minor point: some early investors disliked the pivot to Notes and complained it complicated the platform or led to tax/reporting headaches – but this change was mandated by regulation, not a Mintos choice per se.

In summary, the negative publicity around Mintos centers on risk events and trust issues: multiple loan originator defaults, resulting in investor losses or long waits, have been the primary source of bad press. This underscores that Mintos is not a risk-free, savings-like platform (despite its earlier marketing focusing on “passive income”). Potential investors should heed these lessons: diversify, use the Risk Scores, and be aware that a portion of your Mintos portfolio could become illiquid in a worst-case scenario. On the positive side, Mintos has taken steps to address past shortcomings – getting a license (thus under supervision), removing several bad actors, and improving transparency. But it still carries platform risk, as reflected by the warnings and experiences shared in user reviews and blogs. One should approach Mintos with realistic expectations: high returns but also higher risk of delays and defaults compared to many traditional investments.

Mintos Success Stories and Milestones

Despite the challenges, Mintos has a number of notable success stories and achievements under its belt. As the pioneer and largest platform in European P2P lending, Mintos has often led the industry. Here are some key successes and milestones:

Rapid Growth and Market Leadership: Mintos’s growth from a small Latvian startup in 2015 to the #1 loan investing platform in Europe is a success in itself. By 2018, it reached €1 billion in loans funded, and then astonishingly quadrupled to €4 billion by mid-2019. This rapid scale was unheard of in European crowdfunding at the time. Early in 2020, Mintos hit €5 billion invested, cementing its lead (it accounted for roughly 45% of all European P2P lending volume by some estimates). Even through the pandemic, Mintos continued growing; and as of 2023, crossing the €10 billion mark in cumulative volume is a testament to its popularity and resilience. It also expanded its investor community to over 500k users from 100+ countries, a reach that few competitors have matched. In 2024, Mintos successfully completed EU-wide expansion, localizing its platform in its 10th language (Portuguese) and activating services in all EU/EEA countries. This broad geographic presence is a milestone that positions Mintos as a truly pan-European investment service.

Industry Awards and Recognition: Mintos has garnered multiple awards, reflecting both industry acclaim and user appreciation. Notably, Mintos won the AltFi “People’s Choice Award” five years in a row (2016–2020). This award is voted by investors, indicating Mintos had a very strong community backing and was considered the best platform by popular vote consistently. In 2019, Mintos also won AltFi’s “Alternative Finance Platform of the Year”, a more juried award recognizing overall excellence (beating many UK platforms). Furthermore, Mintos’s co-founder Martins Sulte was frequently invited to speak at fintech conferences, and the company has been highlighted in fintech rankings (for example, being in the FinTech50 list for Europe). In Latvia, Mintos is often cited as a fintech success story – it has been showcased in local media and included in publications like “Treasures of Latvia” for notable exports. These recognitions have helped build Mintos’s brand credibility.

Innovation and Product Expansion: A success story for Mintos is how it evolved its product beyond just P2P loans. Seeing the need to diversify, Mintos executed a strategy pivot starting in late 2023 – adding Bonds and ETFs to its platform. By early 2024, these new assets gained traction: bonds became a success, with many investors taking them up. Mintos launching rental Real Estate deals in 2024 was also met with quick sell-outs (the first real estate offers on Mintos were fully funded within hours, showing high demand). The introduction of Mintos Smart Cash in mid-2024 was innovative, giving investors a tool to earn interest on idle cash; it quickly attracted not only individuals but also corporate investors from markets with low bank deposit rates. By the end of 2024, Mintos effectively became a multi-asset income platform, a vision which they consider key to long-term success. The fact that Mintos could implement this transformation while still growing its user base is a significant milestone. In January 2025, Mintos even launched direct bond investments (allowing access to a wide range of European corporate and government bonds through its interface), and it has stocks in the pipeline for late 2025. This kind of expansion is uncommon among P2P lenders and shows Mintos’s ambition to compete with mainstream brokers and neo-banks.

Community Fundraising and Investor Loyalty: Another success is how Mintos leveraged its own user community for fundraising. The 2020 crowdfunding was a landmark – Mintos raised €6.5M from its users in a matter of days, showing strong investor trust and loyalty. At that time (Q4 2020), this was the largest ever equity raise on Crowdcube in the EU, which got press coverage. Then in 2022, many of those crowd investors saw Mintos become profitable, validating their support (albeit 2024 saw a loss again). In April 2024, Mintos went back to the crowd and again saw a huge turnout, raising €3.1M and even exceeding the target (originally ~€1M target) within hours. This enthusiastic participation by over 3,000 individuals is a success story highlighting how much retail investors believe in Mintos. It effectively turned customers into shareholders, deepening engagement. Mintos now has over 9,000 shareholder-fans from these campaigns, which is a unique strength (they can advocate for the platform, refer friends, etc.).

Regulatory Achievement: Securing the dual licenses in 2021 (Investment Firm and E-Money) was a significant milestone that not many peer platforms achieved at that time. Mintos was among the first in continental Europe to fully regulate its loan marketplace under MiFID. This was praised by some industry observers as a move that would “set the standard” for European P2P, turning it into a more mature sector. The ability to navigate the complex regulatory process successfully is a credit to Mintos’s team. It also opened new doors: with the EMI license, Mintos began developing personal IBAN accounts and a debit card (announced in 2018 with the €5M “Grumpy” investment). Although the card has not launched yet as of 2025 (likely pending further regulatory nods or deprioritized), the groundwork is there to integrate more fintech services, which would be another success once realized.

Notable Partnerships: Mintos has struck partnerships that enhance its offerings. For example, partnering with BlackRock to offer Smart Cash in 2024 was quite an endorsement – having the world’s largest asset manager indirectly providing a product on Mintos indicates the platform’s reach. Additionally, the Capitec Bank investment in an originator (AvaFin) in 2024 was noteworthy: a major South African bank taking over a Mintos lending company suggests Mintos is part of a broader finance ecosystem where even banks step in. For Mintos, having higher-quality originators backed by strong investors improves the platform. Mintos has also worked with banks like Rietumu Bank (a Latvian bank) to secure client fund accounts and with fintechs for open banking payments, etc. Each partnership extended Mintos’s capabilities and credibility.

Exits and Investor Successes: While Mintos is not about equity startups “exiting”, success for investors is measured in returns. Many long-term investors on Mintos have publicly shared positive outcomes: e.g., some users after 5+ years reported total returns exceeding 50% on their original capital through compounding interest. Several bloggers who invested in Mintos early (2015–2016) managed to withdraw profits or have continuously earned double-digit yields. These personal success stories (often posted on blogs or YouTube) have served as testimonials fueling Mintos’s growth. Additionally, Mintos had some notable recovery successes: one example, they managed to recover in full from Mintos’s first-ever default (Eurocent) by 2018, showing that sometimes things can end well. Another example: DelfinGroup, a Latvian lender on Mintos, did so well that it IPO’d on the stock market, which validated Mintos’s due diligence in picking a strong partner (investors in DelfinGroup loans saw consistent on-time payments and the company is thriving).

In conclusion, Mintos’s success is reflected in its market dominance, innovation, and community trust. It transformed from a startup to a multifaceted investment platform, winning awards and user loyalty along the way. For every negative event, there have been many positive outcomes: billions funded, high returns paid out, and continuous improvement of services. Mintos’s journey is still ongoing, but its first decade has been marked by pioneering moves in the alternative investment space and a capacity to adapt and scale. 🎉

Mintos Loan Originators Overview

Mintos operates on a unique model of partnering with Loan Originators (also called lending companies or Loan Originating partners). These are the third-party non-bank lenders that actually issue loans to borrowers in various countries, and then Mintos facilitates investments into those loans. Essentially, when you invest on Mintos, you are buying into loans from these originators. As of 2025, Mintos has a diverse roster of around 50 active loan originators across 30+ countries. The list evolves as new companies join and some exit or get suspended. Below we outline the landscape of Mintos’s originators, including some major players and their profiles:

Eleving Group (formerly Mogo Finance): Country: Latvia (global operations). Eleving is one of the largest originators on Mintos, specializing in secured car loans and leasing. Founded in 2012, it operates in the Baltics, Eastern Europe, and Africa (over 14 countries). Eleving Group has issued over €2 billion in loans since inception and has been profitable in recent years. It’s notable because Eleving was partly owned by Mintos’s early investors and it was an anchor partner on Mintos from the start. Eleving offers loans with buyback guarantee on Mintos and has generally had a good repayment record (though it did restructure some of its subsidiaries during Covid). Eleving even tapped capital markets independently – it issued bonds that are listed on Nasdaq Riga, indicating a relatively strong financial position. Risk-wise, Eleving’s Mintos Risk Score has been around mid-to-high (e.g. 7 or 8 out of 10 after some upgrades) and it remains a popular choice for Mintos investors due to its size and collateralized loans.

Creditstar: Country: Estonia (also operates in Finland, Spain, etc). Creditstar is a big consumer lender offering personal unsecured loans. It’s been on Mintos for many years and typically provides high-interest short-term loans (often 14-18% interest to investors). Creditstar has raised tens of millions via Mintos. It hit turbulence in 2023 when it delayed payments on its own corporate bonds (outside Mintos), raising some concerns. However, Creditstar continued to pay investors on Mintos, albeit sometimes with late transfers. As of Q1 2025, Mintos Risk Score updates show Creditstar’s situation improving slightly (e.g., their Estonia unit got a score boost after securing certain pledges). Creditstar is closely watched by Mintos due to its size in the portfolio. They operate in multiple EU countries, which diversifies their revenue. Investors like the yield but should note Creditstar is a higher risk/reward originator.

IuteCredit: Country: Moldova (plus Balkans like Albania, North Macedonia, Bulgaria). IuteCredit is a personal and car loan provider, known for longer-term installment loans and some collateralized loans. It’s a more established fintech – IuteCredit Europe is actually listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (and had bonds listed as well). This transparency makes it one of the more trusted originators. IuteCredit’s financials have been strong, but they faced a challenge in 2022 when one market (Kosovo) cancelled their license; they pivoted out of that market. On Mintos, IuteCredit has offered ~10-12% returns with buyback. They have generally honored obligations; in late 2021 they even prepaid some pending amounts. Recent Mintos risk updates indicated slight concerns with capitalization ratios for some Iute entities (score adjustments made). Overall, IuteCredit is seen as a relatively solid lender on Mintos with a long track record and external funding sources.

DelfinGroup: Country: Latvia. DelfinGroup is noteworthy as it’s a publicly traded company on the Nasdaq Baltic exchange. It operates under brands like Banknote and VIZIA, offering consumer loans and pawn loans. DelfinGroup’s presence on Mintos gave investors a chance to invest in loans from a profitable, audited company. They typically had Risk Scores in the high range (8+). DelfinGroup has consistently paid investors and even reduced its Mintos funding as it accessed cheaper financing via bonds and its IPO. This is a positive sign – it wasn’t reliant solely on Mintos. Mintos investors who funded DelfinGroup loans experienced smooth performance and relatively lower default rates. DelfinGroup’s success story (going public, raising capital at ~€60M valuation) is a validation that some Mintos originators are robust businesses.

Sun Finance: Country: Latvia (global markets in Asia, Latin America, Europe). Sun Finance is a fast-growing online lender (payday loans primarily) that was once one of the largest groups on Mintos by volume. It operates multiple brands (e.g., in Vietnam, Denmark, Mexico, etc.). Sun Finance was known for high-yield loans (up to 15-20%). They did leave Mintos temporarily around 2020 to try their own funding platform, but later some Sun Finance companies returned to Mintos. They generally honored buybacks but had some hiccups in a couple of markets. Mintos Risk Score changes have reflected the performance: some Sun subsidiaries had improved portfolio performance (scores went up slightly in 2024), while others in new markets might be riskier. Sun Finance as a group claimed very high profitability in recent years and was even considering an IPO. For investors, Sun loans are lucrative but one must gauge each country unit’s strength.

Other notable originators: There are many others: ID Finance (Spain and Mexico) – a fintech lender that crowdfunded its own equity and generally is reliable on Mintos except its Kazakhstan unit defaulted due to political turmoil; Capitalia (Baltics) – provides SME loans and factoring, smaller volumes but stable; GoCredit (Mexico) – a newer one with medium interest loans; Eleving (Mogo) group subsidiaries across countries (Eleving has separate Mintos listings for each country, like Eleving Georgia, Eleving Kenya, etc., all under the group umbrella); Placet Group (Estonia, Lithuania) – a profitable mid-size lender known for prudent lending, highly regarded (often cited by investors as a top quality originator); ESTO (Estonia) – provides point-of-sale financing, smaller but with tech-savvy approach; Lendermarket/Credistar – though Credistar has its own platform Lendermarket, some of its loans ended up on Mintos historically; KFZ Finanz / Eleving (Poland) – car loan segment; PeerBerry’s partner loans – not applicable since PeerBerry is a competitor, but some groups like Aventus used both platforms historically. Also microfinance like Jet Credit (Kazakhstan) etc. The list is long and each has its nuances.

Each originator on Mintos has a profile page showing key figures: total loans issued, average interest, etc., plus financial reports. Mintos updates these pages when new info comes. For instance, an originator’s page might note if they got a new strategic investor (like the case of AvaFin (Mexico) – Mintos notes that in April 2024 Capitec Bank (South Africa) acquired a controlling stake in AvaFin, which is positive news for that lender’s stability). Such developments often bode well for investors, as they indicate the lender has additional backing.

Volumes and Risk Profiles: The loan originators on Mintos range from very large to quite small. A few big groups (Eleving, Sun Finance, Creditstar, Iute) collectively account for a significant share of Mintos’s volume. These big ones have multi-country operations and often external ratings or bonds, which provides more information to assess them. Their risk profile tends to be moderate – they might have leverage and operate in risky markets, but they have scale and experience. On the other end, some originators are small startup lenders in a single country, which can be higher risk (less diversified credit portfolio, more vulnerable to local economic swings). Mintos’s Risk Score helps indicate this: smaller or newer lenders often have scores in the 4–6 range, signaling caution.

Ownership ties: We discussed conflict of interest; to elaborate, some originators like Eleving Group were co-founded by Mintos shareholders, and Sun Finance’s founder was also an early Mintos investor. Mintos insists it treats all equally, but investors keep an eye on those relationships. Interestingly, those affiliated originators often grew big (because they got more funding via Mintos), but when they stumbled (like Finko), it hurt investors significantly.

Recent fundraises: Outside Mintos, many originators have tapped capital markets:

Eleving Group issued a €150M bond in 2021 and another in 2023, indicating they rely less on Mintos now.

Creditstar has issued bonds and was reportedly planning a stock exchange listing.

ID Finance raised equity via Crowdcube in 2022 and issued a €30M bond in 2021.

IuteCredit issued bonds on Frankfurt (and continues to do so).

DelfinGroup regularly issues corporate bonds to the public in Latvia.
These moves are a double-edged sword: they indicate those companies are strong enough to get funding elsewhere (good), but also if they get cheaper funding, they may scale down Mintos volumes or leave (less supply for Mintos investors). We saw some originators depart Mintos for that reason (e.g., Viventor platform’s loans moved away, and some Polish lenders that got bank funding).

Currently, Mintos still has a wide selection (over 50 lending companies listed), but not all are actively issuing new loans at all times (some are dormant or temporarily paused). For investors, it’s crucial to review each originator’s stats and news. Mintos provides quarterly updates on each, and external sites like ExploreP2P or P2P Empire maintain independent lender ratings. For instance, ExploreP2P scored each Mintos lender out of 100 based on factors like financials – a resource some use to complement Mintos’s own risk score.

In summary, Mintos’s loan originators span various regions and risk levels. This gives investors the opportunity to diversify across many loans and countries, which is a strength of Mintos (you are not tied to one originator or one country’s economy). Major originators have shown both successes (some growing big and stable) and failures (some collapsing). The Mintos platform is somewhat only as good as its originators – so understanding who these companies are is vital. Always check the Mintos Risk Score and read the latest financial reports of any lender you heavily invest in. Mintos itself encourages this, providing links to each lender’s financial statements. As of 2025, Mintos continues to onboard new originators (for example, in 2024 it added a few from Latin America and Asia) while phasing out weaker ones. Investors should expect this dynamic roster to evolve, and keep an eye on Mintos’s announcements for any suspensions or new entrants among loan originators.

Is Mintos safe and properly regulated?

Mintos is regulated as an investment firm in the EU (licensed in Latvia and passported Europe-wide). This means it’s under supervision of the Latvian central bank, has to meet capital requirements, segregate client funds, etc. Investors are covered by a compensation scheme up to €20,000 in case Mintos goes bust. These factors make the platform infrastructure safer than unregulated P2P sites. However, investing on Mintos still carries significant risk – your money is exposed to loan defaults and loan originator solvency. While Mintos itself is stable and audited, it does not guarantee your investment. So, Mintos is a legit and regulated platform, but the safety of your investment depends largely on the performance of underlying loans. Always invest an amount you can afford to risk, even on a “safe” platform.

What returns can I expect from Mintos?

Returns vary with market conditions and your chosen strategy. Mintos advertises an average net return around 10–12% per year for diversified investors. In practice, many investors see returns in the high single-digits to low double-digits (e.g. 8–11% annual). If you select only high-interest loans, you might see promised yields of 15%+, but after defaults your actual return could be lower. Historically, Mintos’s overall investor return was >10% in good years, but dropped to ~2% in 2020 due to defaults. As of 2025, with more normal conditions, a well-diversified Mintos portfolio might earn around 9–10% net. Keep in mind returns are not guaranteed; they can fluctuate. Some experienced users employing secondary market tactics claim even higher returns (~13%+), while more conservative users might earn ~7%. It’s wise to assume a range and aim for a stable long-term average (~10%).

: What are the main risks of investing on Mintos?

The main risks include: Borrower default risk – borrowers may not repay their loans, especially since many Mintos loans are high-interest subprime loans. Loan originator risk – the lending company might go bankrupt or face financial trouble, in which case even buyback guarantees can fail and you could lose money. Platform risk – Mintos itself could go out of business (mitigated by regulation and compensation scheme, but it would cause delays and require another entity to service loans). Liquidity risk – you might not be able to exit quickly; selling loans depends on market demand. Currency risk – if you invest in loans denominated in currencies like RUB, KZT, etc., exchange rate fluctuations can significantly affect your returns. Regulatory risk – changes in laws could affect operations (for instance, interest rate caps in some countries can impact lenders). Macro-economic risk – during a recession or events like COVID, more borrowers default and more originators struggle, meaning higher losses. In the worst case, you could lose a large portion of your invested capital if multiple things go wrong (e.g. a big originator default plus a country crisis). Diversification is key to managing risk on Mintos: spread your investments across many loans and different lenders, and keep updated on Mintos’s Risk Scores. While Mintos’s size and safeguards (e.g., buybacks, group guarantees, etc.) provide some buffers, investors should approach it as a high-risk/high-return investment. The platform itself warns that you “may lose some or all of the invested money” – so never invest money you can’t afford to lose. The upside is attractive returns and the chance to earn passive income monthly; the downside is the possibility of delays or losses, so weigh that carefully.

What happens if Mintos as a company fails?

If Mintos were to become insolvent or shut down, there are procedures in place to protect investors. Since Mintos is regulated, it must have plans for an orderly wind-down. All your investments (the Notes and underlying loan claims) are legally yours and held separate from Mintos’s assets. In an insolvency, an administrator or custodian would step in to service the remaining loans – meaning borrowers would continue to repay into a segregated account and you’d still get your share, just via a different channel. The investor compensation scheme in Latvia could compensate you up to €20,000 for any cash or financial instruments that Mintos fails to return. For example, if at the time of Mintos’s failure you had €5,000 sitting as cash in your Mintos account that they couldn’t pay out, the scheme would reimburse that (but if you had €50,000, you’d only get €20k max). However, the scheme does not cover losses from loans – if a loan defaults, that’s your risk. The scheme is about Mintos’s failure to safeguard your assets. Practically, Mintos’s loan servicing might continue for some time during wind-down to collect all loans until maturity. It could be less convenient (no active secondary market, etc.), but you wouldn’t lose your legal claim on the loans. So while Mintos failing would be disruptive, it likely wouldn’t mean an automatic loss of all your investments. It’s different from something like a bank default (Mintos isn’t taking deposits, it’s facilitating investments). In summary, if Mintos fails, an orderly wind-down and third-party management of loan repayments should occur, and investors have some protective measures in place. This scenario is unlikely given Mintos’s financial position, but it’s good that safeguards exist. Always keep records of your investments just in case.