VIAINVEST is a peer-to-peer marketplace for private lenders to invest into loans originating from non-banking lenders – the VIA SMS Group and its daughter companies. Portfolios of non-banking borrower claims mainly consist of consumer loan requests across Europe.
Unlike traditional banking VIAINVEST offers private investors access to the non-banking lending sector through a simple process.
Borrowers request funding from the VIA SMS Group, the active contract automatically is then mirrored on VIAINVEST making it available for public investment. Each investor has full control of how much he wants to invest, to whom and in which loan. VIAINVEST guarantees a transparent investment environment and full investor support at any time.
VIAINVEST is a part of VIA SMS group – financial services provider operating across Europe. Since its founding in 2008 the company currently operates in 5 countries and has grown into one of the leading European consumer lenders. Company headquarters are located in Riga, Latvia.
ViaInvest in numbers
- Total value of issued loans in 2017: 96 813 701 EUR
- Net loan portfolio in 2017: 18 022 102 EUR (+23%)
- Average size of issued loan: 349 EUR
- Average annualized interest rate on loans to customers: 115%
- Revenue in 2017: 20 122 313 (+22%)
- Non-performing loans to total issued loans: 6.5%
- Total number of employees around the world: 157
- Registered investor: 4696
- Average investor deposit: 4256 EUR
- Average interest rate of investments: 10.2%
Who is eligible to invest?
Both private and legal entities are welcome to become investors at VIAINVEST. To begin private investments as an individual, you must be at least 18 years old, must complete the registration process and make the first deposit to your VIAINVEST investor account (VIAINVEST accepts payments only from banks within the European Union). If personal information stated in your investor profile matches the bank information of the person transferring funds to the VIAINVEST platform, the investor profile becomes active and you are able to start investing.
Similar requirements also apply to the legal entities – to start investing, the legal entity must register to open the investor account and make the first deposit. If the information provided upon registration matches the company information appearing when transferring funds, investor account is confirmed. Payments made by legal entities are also accepted if transferred from the bank operating within the European Union.
In what currencies can investments be made?
Investor Account can be opened only in EUR, but VIAINVEST accepts deposits in all currencies. Payments received in currencies other than EUR will be converted to EUR according to the Swedbank currency exchange rates.
How can funds be transfered
Deposits to the investor account can be easily made by transferring funds to the ViaInvest bank account.
For investor identification purposes the first payment must be transferred from the personal investor bank account operating within European Union. The payments are processed within 2 work days.
Investing
In order to begin investing investors need to meet the minimum 2 requirements:
There are two options how to make investments:
- Manual investing – control what loan contracts you would like to invest into and how much:
1. browse the loans contract listing currently listed on VIAINVEST in the primary market section and pick and choose how you want to build your portfolio,
2. make full or partial investments into selected listings.
- Auto-investing – save the time and invest into several loan contracts at once by letting the auto-invest feature to do the work for you:
1. set the preferred criteria for your auto-invest portfolio,
2. take your earnings and reinvest them into other loan contracts,
3. fully automate the investment process without having to log in, manage your investments by changing auto-invest criteria or cancelling this option at any time.
All investments are made in EUR.
Tax issues
As income generated on VIAINVEST is a subject of Withholding Tax, VIAINVEST offers investors to choose 2 ways how these commitments can be handled:
1. Withholding Tax can be applied to the income generated on VIAINVEST within the platform. If the investor does not provide required documents and agrees that his income will be taxed within the platform, no additional actions are required. Income generated on the platform will be taxed according to the legislation of the loan origin country.
2. For Withholding Tax not to be applied to the income within the platform, the investor must take full responsibility of handling these commitments by himself and provide (upload to the investor profile) the copy of personal Tax Certificate issued by the tax authority of the country of investor’s residence. Tax Certificate must be provided before making any investments. If the certificate is not provided all earnings will be taxed in accordance with the appropriate Double Tax Treaty. If the Tax Certificate is uploaded after some investments are made, previously withheld taxes will not be returned to the investor. Only investments that are made after the upload of the Tax Certificate will not be taxed on the platform.
To provide appropriate Tax certificate, please note that income generated on VIAINVEST are paid to investors by loan originators, not the platform itself. Tax Certificate confirms the existence of Double Taxation Convention between the country of investor tax residence and loan origination country/-ies (in this case – Czech Republic, Spain, Latvia). Without a Tax Certificate all earnings will be taxed in accordance with the legislation of the loan origin country – if the loan origin country is Czech Republic – Withholding Tax is 15%, if Spain – 19%, if Latvia – 23%, Poland – 19% for private individuals and 20% for legal entities. Please note that there may be specific cases where Tax/Residence Certificate foresees that investors still need to pay a part of taxes on the platform.
It is required for investors to provide separate Tax/Residence Certificates for each loan origin country. Tax/Residence Certificate must confirm the existence of the treaty for the avoidance of double taxation concluded between the countries of loan origin and investor tax residence.
Future plans
- Expanding the loan originator list: currently there are 4 loan originators: VIA SMS Ltd. (SIA VIA SMS) in Latvia, VIACONTO MINICREDIT, S.L. in Spain, Via SMS s.r.o. in Czech Republic and VIA SMS PL Sp. z o.o. in Poland. ViaInvest will be introducing a new loan originator from Sweden soon.
- Planning on launching a VIAINVEST mobile app, in the near future
