Zopa peer-to-peer investments
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About Zopa
1st
The world’s first peer-to-peer platform
17 years
of personal loan investment expertise
£5 billion
in personal loans lent to over 470,000 UK consumers
£350 million
interest generated for over 60,000 active investors
Numbers as of May 2020
We bring borrowers and investors together
Start off from as little as £1,000 and we’ll split your money across a unique selection of loans to reduce risk and help you earn a return within your projected range.
Feel good knowing your investment will help people across the UK with everything from unsecured loans for home improvements to secured car finance for new wheels to get to work.
We find people in the UK that want to take out a loan for a maximum amount of £25,000. Drawing on our wealth of lending experience, we assess their risk and calculate a fixed interest rate for a period of up to five years.
Then, we match them with people like you – people who want to earn a good return while helping others achieve their goals.
How investing with Zopa works
Zopa breaks your investment down into small chunks in order to spread your investment across lots of loans.
We'll then get to work, finding the right loans to match your investment with so you're set up to perform within your projected return range.
You’ll get monthly repayments, with interest but minus our borrower servicing fee. You can track your investment performance through your Zopa account.
Some loans default, but don't worry, we already factor this in when calculating your projected returns.
By letting us reinvest your repayments as they come in, you can earn interest on interest.
Who you invest in
Our borrowers come in all shapes and sizes, but we run checks on every single one. Here’s a snapshot of what they look like.
Can demonstrate a good track record of repaying debt
Are current UK residents
Have at least three years of UK address history
Average age of 40 years old*
Average income of £40,000*
*average January 2018 – April 2019
Investment tailored to your appetite
We offer two options for investors to pick from, Zopa Core and Zopa Plus:
Zopa Core
Projected return range
2.0% - 4.0%
We expect 95% of customers to achieve a return of at least 2.0% (after fees and losses). A middle-performing investor should expect to earn 3.2%.
Minimum initial investment: £1,000
Risk level
Low to medium
Investment term
No fixed term
Available as an ISA
Zopa Plus
Projected return range
2.1% - 5.3%
We expect 95% of customers to achieve a return of at least 2.1% (after fees and losses). A middle-performing investor should expect to earn 3.7%.
Minimum initial investment: £1,000
Risk level
Medium
Investment term
No fixed term
Available as an ISA
Both Zopa Core and Zopa Plus are available as ISAs so you can enjoy your peer-to-peer returns tax free. Tax treatment depends on your circumstances and may be subject to change in the future.
Your capital is at risk. Loans can have terms up to 5 years. You can use our platform to sell at anytime for a 1% fee, provided another investor is prepared to buy your loan.
How our investments have performed
At Zopa, we aim for our peer-to-peer investments to be nestled in the middle between low-risk, low-yielding savings accounts and volatile, high-return stocks & shares investment.
This chart looks at the performance of Zopa's overall loan book. It's important to note that each investor's portfolio is unique.
Past performance can’t be relied on as an indicator for future results.
Zopa returns are the net annualised return of loans by the year they started.
See historical performanceOur track record of stable, inflation-beating annual returns
Source: Equities: MSCI ACWI Index; Property: Schroders, Thomson Reuters Developed Market Real Estate Total Return Index; Corporate Bonds: Schroders, ICE BofAML Global Corporate Total Return Index; Cash: Bank of England
Zopa Core
‘Jen’ has achieved annual returns of
3.8%The expected return was
4.1%
Annual return achieved by 90% of Zopa Core investors
over 2.8%
Zopa Plus
‘Dan’ has achieved annual returns of
4.2%The expected return was
4.8%
Annual return achieved by 90% of Zopa Plus investors
over 3.2%
Have a look at our middle performing investors
These are our ‘median’ investors, as of May 1st 2020. They’re right in the middle – about 50% of investors have performed better and 50% worse.
So far, fewer than 1% of our investors have made a loss. Of these investors, the average loss amounts to less than 1% of the money they invested.
How we've measured performance
How we worked out annual returns
Net Annualised Return (NAR) shows you the annual rate of return on an investment over its lifetime. NAR is based on actual borrower repayments received, minus service fees and default losses, but including any recoveries made on defaulted loans.
Why there's a spread of annual returns
Every investor’s loan book is unique to them. We look at the NAR of investors that started in Plus or Core with 100+ loan chunks, held 100+ loans as of May 2020, have been investing for at least 12 months and have been reinvesting their repayments. We feel these are most representative of performance.
How we worked out expected returns
Because expected returns change over time, we use a weighted average as a benchmark for performance. This figure is the average of the expected returns over the lifetime of the investment, with more importance – or weight – given to the expected returns that had more funds invested at that rate.
How we manage the risks
Your investment will be spread across many different loans. This reduces your risk as no one person is lent more than 1% of your original investment.
We know that loan repayments can be missed. But thanks to our experienced Collections team, the vast majority of our borrowers who miss a payment will get back on track and fully repay their loan.
There will be times when a borrower is unable to repay their loan, though, and it has to be defaulted. When this happens, you’ll lose the value of that loan from your investment. But don't worry, we already factor some defaults into your projected returns. We'll also continue to try to make recoveries on your behalf, even after a default.
Finally, our business is robust, but we also make sure your loans are taken care of if Zopa were to go out of business. Find out more on our contingency plan page.
Approving the right loans
Our borrowers have to meet high standards. We only approve about 20% of people who apply for a loan with us.†
Everyone that we do approve is categorised based on their risk and given an interest rate personalised to them.
† Based on applications via ClearScore May 2018 – March 2019, representative of Zopa's borrower approval rates.
More about who we lend to20%
of loan applications approved
Low - medium risk80% of loan applications were from applicants we view as too risky
Moneyfacts Consumer Awards
Personal Loan Provider of the Year
Peer-to-peer Provider of the Year
Starting 2020 on a high, Zopa has been recognised as the Personal Loan & Peer-to-peer provider of the Year in the Moneyfacts Consumer Awards. Alongside the winning titles, Zopa was highly commended for the Best Customer Service category. This is the seventh year in a row that we’ve brought home awards from the annual ceremony which means a lot to us as they’re voted for by our customers. Thanks to everyone that voted for us! All winners can be found here
See our awards