LEND Review 2026: 5.7% After Defaults, Checked

Returns and risk

Risk level

Low

Higher means more risk. Personal loans made 2020 to 2023 have lost about 0.8% after recoveries, and the stated default rate is 0.3% a year (September 2026). Mortgage and business loans from some years lost 4% to 6%, and most loans are unsecured.

Return level

Lowest

LEND's yearly table, after defaults and before the 1% fee, shows 5.32% for 2025 and 4.27% for January to September 2026. The headline 5.7% a year (September 2026) does not say whether the fee is taken off.

Risk for the return

Bad

Based on the platform's own return after defaults: 5.32% for 2025, before the 1% fee, so roughly 4.3% to the investor. A modest return for low but real credit risk and money that is hard to take out early.

Average annual return: 5.7% a yearAverage investor return net of defaults stated by LEND (Exaloan Loan Book Review, September 2026); it does not say whether the 1% fee is taken off. Its yearly table, before fees, shows 5.32% for 2025 and 4.27% for January to September 2026.
Money back in: 12–84 monthsTypical loan or investment term

What the platform reports about losses (its own definitions)

Realised losses: 0.8%Average cumulative net loss after recoveries on personal loans made 2020 to 2023, read from the platform's charts by loan year (October 2026); calculated from the platform's own figures. Mortgage loans from 2022-23 lost about 4.3-4.5% and business loans from 2018-19 about 5.7-6.4%.
Default rate: 0.3%Default rate per year across the whole book, stated by LEND (Exaloan Loan Book Review, September 2026). A loan defaults after about 120 days without payment.

Capital at risk. Past returns do not predict future returns; a borrower can pay late or not at all.

Statistics

Last updated 2 Nov 2026

€694.5M
funded since 2015: 9,131
projects funded: 65,000
investors

Figures as the platform publishes them.

Pros and cons

Pros

Publishes yearly returns after defaults since 2016 from an outside loan-book review, loss charts by year and loan type, and recovery results for its mortgage loans.
Personal loans made 2020 to 2023 have lost about 0.8% after recoveries, and the stated default rate is 0.3% a year (October 2026).
Lending since 2016: CHF 635 million paid out and 9,131 projects funded; PostFinance has been a shareholder since 2019; Trustpilot score 4.6 out of 5 from 79 reviews (November 2026).
From CHF 500 per loan, with an automatic investing tool and monthly repayments.

Cons

The loss charts by loan year carry no printed figures, no recovery rate for the whole book is published, and the headline 5.7% does not say whether the fee is taken off.
The 1% yearly fee is charged on the original amount; after it, 2025 returned roughly 4.3%, and yearly returns since 2016 averaged about 4.5% before the fee.
Personal loans are unsecured, with no buyback or reserve fund; some mortgage and business years lost 4% to 6% after recoveries.
No open market for loans: a transfer needs LEND's prior consent and a buyer and costs 1.5% of the capital (at least CHF 500); otherwise money is locked in for up to 84 months.
Not covered by EU crowdfunding rules or FINMA supervision, and the cantonal consumer-credit licence cannot be checked on a public register.

How it works

For investors

Minimum: €547
Fees: Management fee: 1% a year on the amount originally invested, taken from repayments
Investor fee: 1.5% of the capital traded when a loan claim is sold, at least CHF 500
Currencies: CHF
Languages: German, English, French
Auto-invest: Yes
Limits: Persons over 18 and companies, after identity checks, with a Swiss-payable bank account; no residency rule is stated. The pooled mortgage product starts at CHF 10,000; the certificate is only for qualified and institutional investors, from CHF 50,000.

For borrowers and companies

Security: Unsecured · It depends on the type of loan. Personal loans, the largest part, are unsecured; borrowers can take payment-protection insurance against job loss, illness or death. Business borrowers can provide security, such as the owner's joint and several guarantee signed before a notary, or security over the company's assets. Mortgage loans are secured by mortgage notes; we found no general loan-to-value limit for individual loans, and the pooled product LEND Hypovest has a maximum of 80%. There is no buyback and no reserve fund. When a borrower stops paying, LEND handles collection and Swiss debt enforcement, from a 15-day grace period to default at about 120 days and write-off. No recovery rate for the whole book is published; for mortgages, of 38 loans more than 90 days late since 2018, 28 were repaid in full, 9 are in recovery and 1 was written off (March 2026). For the investor this means: on personal loans you carry the loss, minus what collection recovers, so spread your money across many loans.

About and licence

What it is

LEND (lend.ch) is a Swiss crowdlending platform run by Switzerlend AG in Zurich, lending since 2016. Investors lend Swiss francs to Swiss private borrowers, small companies and mortgage borrowers. It reports CHF 635 million paid out (as of 1 October 2026) and 9,131 funded projects since 2016. PostFinance, the Swiss postal bank, has been a shareholder since 2019.

How it works

You lend from CHF 500 per loan (CHF 1,000 for larger projects) to named Swiss borrowers, or let an automatic investing tool do it. Loans run 12 to 84 months. Depending on the loan, the capital is repaid in instalments (annuity or linear) or in one sum at the end (bullet), and borrowers may repay early. LEND checks borrowers with credit bureaus such as ZEK and CRIF. Each loan gets a LEND score from A+ to D1, which sets the rate; borrowers currently pay 4.30% to 9.96% a year. LEND also offers a pooled mortgage product, LEND Hypovest, from CHF 10,000, and a certificate for qualified investors from CHF 50,000.

Returns

LEND states an average investor return of 5.7% a year net of defaults, from the Exaloan Loan Book Review of September 2026; the figure does not say whether LEND's fee has been taken off. Its yearly table from the same review is labelled as net returns before fees, including defaults: 5.32% for 2025, 5.05% for 2024 and 4.27% for January to September 2026. From 2016 to 2025 the yearly figures ranged from 3.63% to 5.32%, about 4.5% on average. For mortgage loans alone, LEND publishes a separate yearly table (Exaloan report, July 2026): 5.05% for 2024 and 5.70% for 2025.

The yearly figures are before LEND's fee of 1% a year on the amount you invested. After that fee, 2025 works out at roughly 4.3% (calculated from the platform's own figures).

Losses and defaults

LEND states a default rate of 0.3% a year across the whole book (Exaloan Loan Book Review, September 2026). A loan counts as in default after about 120 days without payment and is written off when recovery is no longer realistic.

The statistics page shows the cumulative net loss of each year's loans, separately for personal, business and mortgage loans, after losses and recoveries, with data from an outside analytics firm; the charts carry no printed numbers. Read from those charts, personal loans made from 2020 to 2023 have lost about 0.8% on average (calculated from the platform's own charts, October 2026). Other parts of the book lost more: personal loans from 2018 about 3.6%, mortgage loans from 2022 and 2023 about 4.3% to 4.5%, and business loans from 2018 and 2019 about 5.7% to 6.4%. Personal loans made in 2025 have already lost 1.5% after 20 months, more than earlier years at the same age.

What secures your money

It depends on the type of loan. Personal loans, the largest part, are unsecured; borrowers can take payment-protection insurance against job loss, illness or death. Business borrowers can provide security, such as a joint and several guarantee from the owner signed before a notary, or security over the company's assets. Mortgage loans are secured by mortgage notes held as collateral. We found no general loan-to-value limit published for individual mortgage loans; the pooled product LEND Hypovest has a maximum of 80%. There is no buyback and no reserve fund.

When a borrower stops paying, LEND handles collection and Swiss debt enforcement for investors, through stages from a 15-day grace period to default at about 120 days and write-off. No recovery rate for the whole book is published. For mortgages, LEND reports that of 761 property-secured loans made since 2018, 38 were more than 90 days late; 28 of those were repaid in full with interest, 9 are still in recovery and 1 was written off (March 2026). For the investor this means: on personal loans you carry the loss, minus what collection recovers, so spread your money across many loans.

Who runs it and its licence

Switzerlend AG, Mühlebachstrasse 38, Zurich (registered 30 July 2015), states that it holds a consumer-credit licence from the canton of Zurich and is a member of the self-regulatory organisation PolyReg for anti-money-laundering supervision. The canton publishes no public register of these licences, so we could not check it independently. LEND has no banking licence and is not prudentially supervised by FINMA. Switzerland is outside the EU, so the EU crowdfunding rules and their investor protections do not apply. We found no regulator action against it.

Fees

On loans, investors pay 1% a year of the amount originally invested, taken from borrower repayments (CHF 10 a year on CHF 1,000). LEND's glossary explains that the fee stays the same over the loan's term and is charged only when a repayment comes in (CHF 0.83 a month on CHF 1,000). On loans repaid in instalments it therefore takes a growing share of the money still outstanding, and on low-rate loans it can take most of the return. Selling a loan claim costs 1.5% of the capital traded, at least CHF 500. There are no deposit or withdrawal fees. LEND Hypovest has its own fees: 0.95% a year, a subscription fee of up to 1.25% and a redemption fee of 0.25% (factsheet of 31 October 2026).

Getting your money out

You get your money back as borrowers repay, over up to 84 months, or sooner if a borrower repays early; on bullet loans the capital comes back at the end. There is no open market for loans. Under the investor terms (clause 4.4, June 2026), you can transfer a loan claim only with LEND's prior consent and if you find a buyer, for a fee of 1.5% of the capital, at least CHF 500. The trading data shown on the statistics page relates to tokenised shares in the company itself, not to loans.

Our view

Return: Very Low — LEND's yearly table, after defaults and before the 1% fee, shows 4.5% to 5.3% from 2022 to 2025 (5.32% for 2025); the headline 5.7% does not say whether the fee is taken off. Risk: Low (higher means more risk) — recent personal-loan years have lost about 0.8% after recoveries and the stated default rate is 0.3% a year, though older, mortgage and business loans lost more. Risk-return: Low — after defaults the loans earned 5.32% in 2025 before fees, a modest return for mostly unsecured Swiss loans that are hard to sell.

Licence

Switzerlend AG (CHE-456.445.646, Zurich) states that it holds a consumer-credit licence from the canton of Zurich under the Swiss Consumer Credit Act and is a financial intermediary under the Anti-Money Laundering Act, supervised through the self-regulatory organisation PolyReg. No public cantonal register confirms the licence. It holds no banking licence and is not prudentially supervised by FINMA. The EU crowdfunding rules do not apply, and no deposit protection or compensation scheme covers the loans.

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Questions people ask

Is LEND regulated?

Partly. Switzerlend AG states that it holds a consumer-credit licence from the canton of Zurich and is supervised for anti-money-laundering through PolyReg. It has no banking licence and no FINMA supervision, and as a Swiss platform it is not covered by the EU crowdfunding rules.

Who holds my money?

Cash waiting to be lent sits in LEND's settlement account at PostFinance, kept apart from the company's own accounts; how it would be treated if LEND became insolvent is not stated. The loan claims are assigned to you and held by LEND as representative or trustee.

What is the minimum investment?

CHF 500 per loan, or CHF 1,000 for larger projects. The pooled mortgage product starts at CHF 10,000 and the certificate, for qualified investors only, at CHF 50,000.

What returns, and what losses so far?

LEND states 5.7% a year after defaults and a default rate of 0.3% a year (Exaloan Loan Book Review, September 2026). Its yearly table shows 5.32% after defaults for 2025, before the 1% fee. Personal loans made 2020 to 2023 have lost about 0.8% after recoveries; some mortgage and business years lost 4% to 6%.

What secures my investment?

Personal loans are unsecured, with optional payment-protection insurance for the borrower. Business borrowers can give security, such as the owner's notarised guarantee or security over company assets, and mortgages are secured by mortgage notes. There is no buyback or reserve fund. For mortgages, of 38 loans more than 90 days late since 2018, 28 were repaid in full, 9 are in recovery and 1 was written off (March 2026).

Can I sell my loans early?

Only in a limited way. There is no open market, but you can transfer a loan claim with LEND's prior consent if you find a buyer, for a fee of 1.5% of the capital (at least CHF 500). Otherwise your money comes back as the borrower repays over 12 to 84 months, or sooner if they repay early.

What fees do I pay?

1% a year of the amount you originally invested, taken from repayments; it stays the same over the term and is charged only when a repayment comes in, so on loans repaid in instalments it weighs more as the capital is paid down. Selling a loan claim costs 1.5% (at least CHF 500). No deposit or withdrawal fees.

What happens if LEND or a borrower fails?

If a borrower fails, LEND runs debt enforcement for all investors; what is not recovered is your loss. If LEND failed, the loan claims are legally yours, but collecting repayments could be disrupted, and the protection of cash in the settlement account is not spelled out. No compensation scheme applies.

Why do the headline figures differ from the yearly table?

The 5.7% headline comes from the September 2026 loan-book review and does not say whether LEND's 1% fee is taken off. The yearly table from the same review is labelled before fees and shows 5.32% for 2025. We use the table to judge the return after losses.