Microwd - Risk and return review
Microwd - Returns and loss rates
Microwd – Platform statistics 2026
Microwd – Pros & Cons
About Microwd
What it is
Microwd is a Spanish impact-lending website, run since 2015 by Microwd Inversiones, S.L. in Madrid. Through it, investors in Europe fund small loans to women who run micro-businesses in Latin America, mainly in Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru, and also in Costa Rica. It says it has made more than 22,000 loans since 2016 (October 2026). It holds no financial licence.
How it works
You open an account and pay in euros, from €50; reinvesting starts at €1. Your money goes to a local lending partner in the borrower's country, which lends it on, collects the instalments and passes them back. Several of these partners are Microwd's own companies. Loans are repaid in about ten monthly instalments. The exchange rate is fixed when money is sent out and when it comes back, so the return in euros depends on how the local currency moves in between.
Returns
Microwd advertises up to 12% a year, measured in the borrowers' local currency and before any currency moves; how much you get depends on how fast borrowers repay (as of October 2026). Its home page also says 10% a year, without saying what that figure measures. No realised return has been published since 2018, when the company stated about 8% a year. Borrowers pay around 25% a year.
Losses and defaults
Microwd publishes no default rate. Its only credit figure is that 90% of its historical portfolio shows good repayment (quarterly report, as of 31 March 2026). That leaves about 10% that did not, calculated from the platform's own figure; it does not say what counts as good, or whether this is by number of loans or by amount. A separate page on delays shows ratios above 100% by country and year without saying what they measure. In 2018 the company stated a default rate of 2.7%.
What secures your money
Nothing secures these loans. They are small unsecured loans to women running micro-businesses in Latin America, repaid in about ten monthly instalments. There is no buyback, no reserve fund and no insurance: a guarantee fund of 4% that the company described in 2018 no longer appears on its pages (October 2026). Your money is not a bank deposit and is not covered by Spain's deposit guarantee fund or any investor compensation scheme. Borrowers are chosen and followed by local teams, who start with a small first loan and lend more only after it is repaid; no written credit policy is published. No figure is published for what was recovered from loans that went bad; some finished loans are shown as forgiven, without amounts. You also carry two further risks: the exchange rate between the borrowers' currency and the euro, and the possibility that a local lending partner fails.
Who runs it and its licence
The operator is Microwd Inversiones, S.L., Calle Puenteareas 18, Madrid, company number (CIF) B-87287108. Its legal notice says it is not an investment firm or a credit institution and belongs to no deposit or investor guarantee fund. It is not authorised by Spain's market regulator, the CNMV, as a crowdfunding provider and has no entry in the European crowdfunding register (checked 30 October 2026). Investors have asked publicly since 2017 how it can operate without a licence; the company's answer is that the loans are made abroad, not in Spain. In 2026 Microwd also promotes a Microwd bond at 10% a year from €1,000, sold through another, CNMV-authorised crowdfunding platform; that platform's licence does not cover the microloan investments described here. No audited accounts are published.
Fees
There is no fee page, and the FAQ lists no fee charged to investors (August 2026). Microwd and its local partners are paid from the gap between the around 25% borrowers pay and what investors receive; how that gap is split is not published.
Getting your money out
There is no market to sell your loans to other investors, so your money comes back only as borrowers repay. The FAQ says transfers to investors can take up to two months, about 15 days on average (October 2026). In December 2025 investors could not log in to their accounts for several days while the website moved to a new system.
Our view
Return: Very High (no realised figure) — up to 12% a year advertised, but in local currency. Risk: Very High (higher means more risk) — no licence, no security or buyback, currency risk on you, and loss data that is too thin to check. Risk-return: Low — the high advertised rate does not make up for how much can go wrong and how little is published.
Regulation
License / Regulation: No licence. Microwd Inversiones, S.L. (Madrid, CIF B-87287108) states it is not an investment firm or credit institution and belongs to no deposit or investor guarantee fund. It is not authorised by the CNMV as a crowdfunding provider and has no entry in ESMA's crowdfunding register (checked 30 October 2026). A Microwd bond sold in 2026 through another CNMV-authorised crowdfunding platform falls under that platform's licence, not Microwd's microloan offer.
Functionality
For Investors
Useful Information
No. Microwd Inversiones, S.L. says it is not an investment firm or a credit institution. It is not authorised by Spain's CNMV as a crowdfunding provider and has no entry in the European crowdfunding register (checked 30 October 2026). A Microwd bond sold in 2026 through another, CNMV-authorised platform is covered by that platform's licence, not by Microwd.
Microwd Inversiones, S.L., Calle Puenteareas 18, Madrid, company number (CIF) B-87287108, founded in 2015. The loans are made and collected by local lending partners in Latin America, several of them Microwd's own companies. No audited accounts are published.
This is not disclosed. No bank or payment institution is named. Your money is sent to the local lending partner in the borrower's country. It is not a bank deposit and is not covered by Spain's deposit guarantee fund.
€50 to start; repaid money can be reinvested from €1.
Microwd advertises up to 12% a year in the borrowers' local currency, before currency moves (October 2026); its home page also says 10% a year. No realised return has been published since 2018, when the company stated about 8%. It publishes no default rate: its only figure is that 90% of its historical portfolio shows good repayment (31 March 2026), which leaves about 10% that does not, without a definition.
Nothing. The loans are unsecured, and there is no buyback, reserve fund or insurance. A 4% guarantee fund described in 2018 no longer appears on the site. You also carry the currency risk and the risk that a local lending partner fails.
The up-to-12% figure is in the borrowers' local currency. The exchange rate is fixed when your money is sent out and when it comes back, so if the local currency falls against the euro in between, you receive less in euros. The first-quarter 2026 report mentions currency hedging on the Mexican peso, but its terms are not published.
No. There is no market to sell loans to other investors, so money comes back only as borrowers repay, over about ten monthly instalments. The FAQ says transfers to you can take up to two months, about 15 days on average (October 2026).
No fee page is published and the FAQ lists no investor fee (August 2026). Microwd and its partners are paid from the gap between the around 25% a year borrowers pay and what investors receive; the split is not published.
The site does not say. Your contract runs through the local lending partner, no one buys back unpaid loans, and no guarantee or compensation scheme applies, so you could lose part or all of the money with that partner.
