The 27 Mintos Loan Originators I choose to invest in

I really take my time to set my auto-invest settings. If you don’t have much time you could choose B or higher originators as I suggested in my Mintos Review earlier, and use Mintos diversification settings, however there are some originators you want to avoid, and the Mintos diversification settings are not always as diversified as you might think.

In the end you will need to decide on your own settings based on your Risk profile, however this might provide some guidance on what to look for.

If you are not sure yet what Mintos is exactly then read my Mintos review and find out.

My Mintos Investment strategy

Before we begin I do have a few requirements. Any Loan originator in my portfolio answers these requirements.

• Interest rates need to be above 10%
• Only Loan Originators that provide Buyback guarantee
• No Loans from Kosovo or Denmark (due to local regulations)
• Mintos Loan Originators need to have either interest on late payments or penalty for late payments
• I did not find any Loan Originator of C+ or lower that interests me, so they are not mentioned here
• My strategy is aimed at minimizing risk, but I do take in some risk to get better returns

Points to watch out for

Very high interest rates

Its better not to blindly chase a high interest rate, but always stand still and ask why this high interest rate is offered. It might be that the Loan Originator offers the Loans at a higher interest rate himself, so can afford it, but it might also be that the Loan Originator urgently needs cash. Which is not a bad thing necessarily, but you must always ask the right questions when investing.

Financial Statements

Mintos Loan Originators

A lot of loan originators also use old Financial statements. While still showing only 2018 financials are suspicious but can still be somewhat forgiven, still using 2017 financials is for me a red flag and a reason to not only stop investing but also a reason to consider to sell. Also always look if Financials are audited. If they are not audited we are trusting the Loan Originator to provide proof.

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So that totals my 27 loan originators. Keep in mind Mintos currently has 65 Loan Originators. Its hard to know that if you would blindly select all 65 originators if you would come out on top after 5 years. You would have a higher interest rate, but for sure you would also have a higher rate of default. If you diversify but you take in to much Loan Originators with bad ratings then you diversify in a bad way, and greatly increase your chances of defaults.

Mintos Diversification settings

I also do not like the default diversification settings Mintos has. It does not hold into account how many sub – origators a Loan Originator has, and it fails to account for the Risk / Return that Loan Originators bring.

These are the default Diversification with my settings:

Did you notice the big stack in the side taking up 25% of my investments? Horrible! The stack here is Finko, and as you have seen I have deselected most sub – originators from Finko, but still Mintos is treating it like I have them all selected. Additionally a few others are given a higher percentage then I would given the risk that comes with them.

I have contacted Mintos to not only point out this issue, but also to ask that my diversification settings are not overwritten every time I add a new Loan Originator. Mintos is getting a lot of new Loan Originators these days, which is great as a few are really good enough quality to make part of my portfolio, however it is a lot of work to rebalance the settings every time.

With my own settings inserted I get a much better balance. I no longer have any Mintos Loan Originators higher then 15% and those who are higher then 10% have good Financial Figures.

You can find the difference in the bellow table:

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My Mintos Portfolio

And how is it working out for me?

First I should point out the following points:

• I have a second strategy on the secondary market containing 3% of my portfolio. I only buy loans with discount here and I have a higher requirement
• I have another strategy containing 6% of my portfolio on the secondary market. This strategy is now disabled
• About 5% of my portfolio has been manually invested. Mainly to combat cash drag
• My strategy sometimes changes, so I have loan originators that I removed from my auto-invest strategy in my portfolio, although I do not sell the loans unless the financial situation of the Mintos Loan Originator drastically changes
• I have a total of 9700 EUR invested so far and a return rate of 11.38%. I know many have a higher return rate then me, but they are also willing to accept more risk.

Generally I am quite happy with my diversification and I feel every month it is slightly improving and getting more to the place where I want it to be at.

Final Words

Sources

I should mention the bellow sources that I use a lot when deciding on what Mintos originators to invest in.

• Explore p2p: excellent source to check Lender ratings
• The Mintos Loan Originator page to find the latest Financials on Mintos Loan Originators

What would you do differently?

I am not perfect, I am sure improvements are possible, or you have a different preference. I am very eager to read what kind of strategy you follow, or what you like / do not like in my strategy. Leave a comment bellow and let me know!