Income Marketplace Review

Requirements

To earn interest on your investment in Getincome, you must meet specific requirements.

If you don’t have a bank account in EUR, you can open a free N26 account, use Revolut, or get the Wise card. Remember that you can only transfer EUR from an account in your name.

The verification of your identity takes less than 2 minutes. You will get a QR code to take a quick selfie and a photo of your ID card.

To top up your investment account on the Income Marketplace, you must deposit funds into Income's bank account via an SEPA transfer.

Remember to add your reference number so the marketplace can allocate your deposit to your investor account. You can find the reference number in your Getincome account. The transfer should take no more than two business days.

Remember that you must reside within the EU or EEA to invest in the Income P2P Marketplace. The platform doesn't offer investment opportunities for investors from outside of Europe.

Risk & Return

When it comes to P2P lending, you should always be able to evaluate the quality of the protection scheme and the quality of the loans you invest in.

In other words, look at the buyback guarantee and check the loan originators' financial information and the performance of their loan book.

Let’s first look at the buyback guarantee.

Buyback Guarantee Explained

A 60-day buyback guarantee on Income backs your investment. This means that the loan originator promises to repurchase your investment and repay the accrued interest if the loan repayments are delayed by 60 days.

Experienced investors understand that the buyback guarantee is only as good as the lenders' financials and loan performance.

Remember that certain loan originators list their loans on Income via an SPV. Non-European lenders typically incorporate an SPV that lists loans on the marketplace. 

Loan Originators

As of February 2025, the majority of available loans on the platform originate from the Indonesian lender Danarupiah, the Estonian lender Hoovi, and the Bulgarian lending company ITF Group JSC. Additionally, long-term loans are offered by Spanish lender Iban Car, Lithuanian-based Current Auto, and British lender Sandfield Capital.  

This regional concentration means that Income Marketplace is best suited for investors looking to diversify their loan portfolio across these specific markets.

Income's Due Diligence And Onboarding

Let's get into more detail about the onboarding process of lenders on the Income Marketplace.

1. Initial Data Collection

The platform first gathers key information from the lending company, requiring legal documentation, financial statements, and an explanation of the company's loan origination process.

2. Risk Assessment

Income’s risk manager analyzes the submitted documents, focusing on loan book performance and portfolio profitability as primary evaluation factors.

3. Financial Review

The Head of Onboarding at Income conducts an in-depth review of the lender's financial statements, assessing them from multiple perspectives to ensure transparency and reliability.

4. Additional Guarantees (if necessary)

If the lender lacks an established track record, Income may require a group guarantee, particularly when the lending company is a startup operating under a larger financial institution.

5. Junior Share Calculation & Approval

The platform then calculates the junior share—the portion of loans the lender must retain—and submits the results for management approval. If approved, an offer is extended to the lender.

6. Final Compliance Checks

Upon offer acceptance, the platform performs a final verification, reviewing loan agreements, bank statements, and loan documentation to confirm that loans are properly backed by collateral.

7. Onboarding & API Integration

If all criteria are met, the lender is officially onboarded, and API integration is established, allowing Income to directly monitor the performance of listed loans from the lender’s loan management system.

8. Ongoing Monitoring

Every six months, Income conducts a completeness check and evaluates the performance of the entire loan portfolio. This periodic review helps determine adjustments to the junior share and ensures ongoing compliance.

Junior Share & Cashflow Buffer Explained

Income Marketplace positions itself as the “safest” P2P lending marketplace in Europe, implementing additional protection mechanisms such as the Junior Share and Cash Flow Buffer to enhance investor security.

The Junior Share is an improved version of the traditional Skin in the Game model. In most P2P platforms, Skin in the Game refers to the portion of a loan that is funded directly by the lender from its own balance sheet, ensuring that lenders have a vested interest in loan performance. However, the Junior Share goes a step further—it is subordinated to investor funds, meaning lenders absorb losses first in the event of default.

This structure provides an added layer of protection for investors, as the Junior Share acts as a financial cushion if a lending company fails.

To fully understand how Income’s protection measures stand out, let’s compare Skin in the Game with the Junior Share in more detail.

So, let’s say a lender with a €1 million loan portfolio and 10% skin in the game defaults.

In the next step, a collection company starts the recovery process.

Let’s assume that 40% of the portfolio could not be recovered, which means that 60% of the loan book is the final value that will now be distributed proportionally to the lender and the investors.

In this scenario, the lender and the investors are equally likely to recover the debt.

In this case, investors would lose 46% of their investments. Forty percent would be bad debt, and six percent would go to the lender.

That’s basically how skin in the game works.

Now, let’s look at the Junior Share.

The lender will list a €1 million portfolio on the platform, of which 35% is reserved as Junior Shares. That means that only 65% of the portfolio is investable by investors.

It’s important to highlight that Junior Share is subordinated to investors’ funds. Let’s examine what this means.

So, let’s say the lender goes bust, and the collection agency cannot recover 40% of the loans.

That’s not too bad,, as investors have invested in only 65% of the loan book. The junior share will be paid first to investors to cover the obligations before being paid to the lender.

In this case, investors receive all the recovered funds, resulting in only a 5% loss.

That solid protection mechanism significantly reduces your risk of losing money if a lending company defaults.

Junior Share Calculation

Based on the quality of the loan book, the Income Marketplace calculates the appropriate rate of “junior share” for every lender.

Every lender must invest the “junior share” amount from its balance sheet into every loan.

The calculation of the junior share is very straightforward.

First, the platform analyzes the performance of the lender’s portfolio.

Loan performance analysis is a crucial element in any due diligence process as it gives an idea of a portfolio's cash value over a specific time period.

So, let’s assume we expect to receive 120% of the portfolio within three months. This amount also includes the interest and fees that borrowers are paying.

In the lending business, this variable is called the expected repayment coefficient.

To figure this out, the platform must access the loan book performance.

In the next step, the Income Marketplace has to figure out how much is the required repayment coefficient to cover obligations to investors.

That includes loan principal, interest rate, and platform fees. Let’s assume it’s 104%.

So now, the platform knows, based on the loan book performance, how much is required to recover and how much is expected to be recovered.

In the third step, the platform deducts risk margins.

If the lender defaults, there are risks that you won’t be able to recover everything.

A risk factor could be that the borrower decides not to pay, the exchange rate changes or a global pandemic starts, and borrowers lose their jobs.

The Income Marketplace will calculate every risk margin separately, and it’s never the same for all lenders.

So now, the platform can calculate the investable amount by subtracting the risks from the expected repayment coefficient.

In this case, investors will be allowed to invest 79% into a loan, and they would be fully covered if all the potential risks materialize.

The cash flow buffer differs between the investable amount and the expected repayment.

A side note is that Income recalculates the junior share every six months or when the product and its pricing change.

So, the lender has a much larger "Skin in the Game (Junior Share)" if the Income Marketplace determines that the portfolio quality isn't as good or that the risks are too high.

It's a similar principle as when evaluating the LTV for real estate properties; just in this case, one considers the cash value of the loan book.

In the case of a defaulted lender, Income takes over the collection of loans of the entire portfolio and repays investors before the lender.