27 September 2016

When Junk Bonds Default

Opening disclaimer:
I should first declare that this is not about some oil and gas company going under!

It had to happen at some point. After a few months of trying out peer-to-peer (P2P) loan on Moolahsense, I've finally experienced the first delayed payment.

The company concerned made two monthly payments promptly for a 12 month loan, but it was only able to provide a partial and late payment in the third month. Not good. It is a potential default case.

As of now, I have 15 loans, each varying between $1,000 to $5,000. So it's still well within the 5% provision I made (see When junk bonds become my moolah).

It's still too early to count the rate of default. It's only been four months into this journey. Fingers crossed.

In 2005, when I first came across this form of P2P locally (Crowd funding comes to Singapore), the number of loan offers ("campaigns") were few and far in between. I guess those were its infancy. This year, the pace seems to have picked up quite a bit. Sometimes, there seems to be one every other day. Then it goes quiet for a period. Quite patchy. It's not yet a steady stream.

But once the portfolio has a number of loans made, it's kind of shiok to see notifications of payments almost every other day. It's probably mere coincidence that the loan payments fall on different days.

2 comments:

Singapore Man of Leisure said...

Lizardo,


1) I am guessing your total P2P loans portfolio is less than 10% of your investible funds. Even if all P2P loans were to default, it won't change your lifestyle ;)

2) 17% yield with 5% default provisions - not too bad. I would have preferred 20-25% yield; but if its 25%, the borrowing company can just swipe their own credit cards!

LOL!

Lizardo said...

SMoL,

You are right. I'm keeping it below <5% for a start.

At 25% yield, I'd be a credit card company! Hahah.

But no, so far, it seems like the loans are 18% or less.