Monethera suspends buybacks amid Estonian P2P concerns
Estonian peer-to-peer business lender Monethera has extended a suspension of its buyback guarantee and said it will launch a secondary market.
The platform, which offers rates between 18 and 22 per cent to fund loans in Estonia, Latvia, Poland and Germany, suspended its buyback guarantee in January amid fears that the collapse of Envestio and Kuetzal would cause a flurry of withdrawals by investors.
The restriction was supposed to be for 30 days from 21 January but Monethera has now said there is no approximate date for the return of the buyback.
“When developing the company’s strategy, our experts considered all possible cases of market behaviour,” Monethera said.
“At the moment, we are faced with one of the risks listed in the disclaimer, the market risk.
“We were ready for such a course of events, so we have a clear idea of the steps that must be taken to normalise the situation as soon as possible.
“We do not doubt that the actions we have made will have a positive result. Meanwhile, Monethera continues to operate normally, except for temporarily disabling the buyback function.”
It comes as Monethera also announced it was changing its banking provider as investors were facing issues making withdrawals.
However, investors are still expressing concerns on its Facebook page that they can’t always access their funds.
The Estonian P2P lending market is under pressure at the moment after police launched a criminal investigation into the unexplained closures of Envestio and Kuetzal, which has left investors unable to access their funds.
