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Every loan listing tells a story — if you know how to read it
Two loans. Both offer 11% annual interest. Both are 12-month terms. One is a business loan from a company with three years of audited financials. The other has a vague purpose, no collateral, and a borrower registered six months ago. The numbers look the same. The risk does not. Knowing how to read a loan listing is what makes the difference.
What You'll Learn
- Which listing fields matter
- How to read yield with risk
- How to make a simple review checklist
Start with the basics
Every loan listing on Afranga displays a set of core fields. These are your starting point — not your finish line.
Interest rate. Your return if the loan performs as expected. A higher rate reflects higher assessed risk. Always ask what is driving it before treating it as an opportunity.
Loan term. How long until full repayment. Shorter terms mean less time for things to go wrong. Longer terms typically offer higher rates to compensate for the extended exposure.
Loan amount. The total size of the loan. Larger loans concentrating in your portfolio require proportionally more scrutiny.
Loan type. Business loan or real estate loan.
Go deeper on the borrower
The numbers on the listing are only as good as the borrower behind them.
Operating history. How long has the company been trading? Two or more years of financials gives you something meaningful to assess. Less than that is a thinner basis for a lending decision.
Loan purpose. What is the money for, specifically? A concrete purpose — equipment purchase, invoice financing, a confirmed construction project — tells you how the borrower plans to generate the cash flow to repay. Vague purposes are harder to evaluate and easier to misrepresent.
Financial health. Afranga provides a Key Investment Information Sheet (KIIS) for every loan. Read it. It contains the borrower's financials, risk factors, and material information you need to make an informed decision. This is not optional background reading — it is the basis of your lending decision.
For real estate loans, check the LTV
The Loan-to-Value ratio is the single most important metric for property loans. It tells you what percentage of the property's value the loan represents.
A 60% LTV means the loan is 60% of the property's value — leaving a 40% buffer before losses begin if the asset needs to be sold. An 80% LTV leaves only 20%. Always check whether the LTV is based on the property's current market value or its projected completion value. The latter is an estimate, not a fact, and deserves more scrutiny.
Use a consistent checklist
Before investing, check: loan type, term, amount, interest rate, originator, country, status, repayment schedule, borrower or package information, available documents and early repayment option rules.
A checklist does not make the decision for you. It makes the decision more disciplined.
Key Takeaways
- The interest rate is a starting point, not a conclusion. Always understand what's driving it.
- Read the KIIS for every loan before investing — it contains the financial and risk information your decision should be based on.
- For real estate loans, the LTV ratio is your key safety metric. Lower is safer, and current value is more reliable than projected value.
- A concrete loan purpose is easier to evaluate and harder to misrepresent than a vague one.
Quick Quiz
Question 1:
What is the Key Investment Information Sheet (KIIS)?
A. A marketing document summarising the platform's best loans
B. A standardised document containing the borrower's financials, risk factors, and material loan information
C. A guarantee provided by Afranga against borrower default
D. A summary of the platform's regulatory status
Question 2
What is the purpose of a checklist?
A. To make review consistent
B. To remove all risk
C. To skip documentation
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