Maclear Update October 2026: Almost €5,000 Invested, Over €60 Interest a Month & Bargains on the Secondary Market

Time once again for a short update on my Maclear investment. I have been testing the Swiss crowdlending platform for several months now – and I have meanwhile arrived at around €5,000 there. That is also my upper limit: I do not put more into a platform without an EU licence.

A quick classification: Maclear is a Swiss financial intermediary and a member of the self-regulatory organisation PolyReg. For me, though, that is simply not worth quite as much as an ECSP licence or a MiFID II licence, for example. Maclear does not have those so far, unfortunately. According to Maclear it is pursuing an ECSP licence – but as of today it does not exist yet.

In this post we look at how big Maclear has become, what my investment looks like, how much interest I can expect each month and what is currently happening on the primary and secondary market.

As always, the most important thing first: this is not investment advice and not a recommendation to buy, just my personal opinion and my personal investments. P2P loans are high-risk – only invest money you could afford to lose entirely, and make your own decisions. The Maclear link is a referral link: if you use it, I receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you.

Maclear in numbers: almost €120 million in deposits

Before we look at my account, the statistics first. Maclear publishes them on its own website – simply under "Statistics" (in the German interface I use: "Statistik") in the top menu.

The total growth of deposits is cumulative, so over the entire period – and Maclear is now at almost €120 million. To be precise: at the end of September it was €119,482,309.53. In the video I say "invested" at this point – strictly speaking this chart shows deposits, i.e. the money investors have paid into the platform in total.

The interest figures are quite interesting too:

• Total interest paid out: more than €14.6 million (exactly €14,658,979.50)
• In September alone: €1,526,229.68 – and it keeps growing every month

What I also find interesting about Maclear is the geography. Here you can see where the investors actually come from:

Pretty striking: the vast majority come from Spain, France and Portugal – together that is 65%. Germany follows in fourth place with 7.1%, then Italy with 6.5%, and the remaining 21.4% is spread across the rest of the world.

You can look at the same thing for the projects. They come from many countries – there are in fact even some in Kenya (82 of them) – but the focus is clearly on Europe. For context: according to Maclear's statistics data, around half of all projects are located in Bulgaria. Sorted by industry, services are the largest item with 656 projects, followed by loan originators (546), wholesale and services (277), agriculture (179) and construction (162).

Here are the key figures at a glance:

In total, 56,325 investors are now registered with Maclear, and 3,876 new ones joined in September alone. So the platform is growing pretty strongly at the moment.

And what I think is really cool: there are even statistics on the secondary market. I have not seen that on other platforms.

In September, €1,332,078.30 was traded on the secondary market, and the average trade was €390.30. So not huge, but not tiny either.

My Maclear account: almost €5,000 invested

Now to my own investment. This is what my dashboard looks like (recorded on 5 October 2026):

• Total funds: €4,994.69 – of which €4,980.77 is actively invested and €13.92 sits in the account as balance
• Average rate: 15.50%
• Expected interest in October: €64.30
• Positions in my list: 27

At the start of the video I say I have reached €5,000 – to be exact it is €4,994.69, so I am marginally below.

It is nice to see how much interest is coming together here by now: €64.30 is expected for October, and the same for November and December. From January the forecast shows less (€51.09) because some capital will already have come back by then – which I will of course reinvest. Bottom line, I can expect well over €60 of interest per month here, from the roughly €5,000 I have invested.

For comparison with my last Maclear video from 21 September:

My account has become somewhat smaller compared with September and is now just below the €5,000 mark. That has a direct consequence for the loyalty bonus.

Loyalty programme: I am €19 short of the bonus

Maclear has a loyalty programme. Once your active portfolio is above €5,000, you reach the Beta level and receive an additional 1.5% interest on all future investments.

Unfortunately I am marginally below it right now – I am €19 short. That is not quite ideal, but it should even out again with the next interest payments: as soon as I have at least €50 of balance (that is the minimum amount per investment on the primary market), I will invest it again. Then I have the 1.5% extra return on all future investments and can push the interest here up a little further.

A few details:

• According to Maclear, the bonus rate is fixed per investment. My positions from the time I had Beta status keep it – in my list you can recognise them by the "+1.5%" after the interest rate.
• According to Maclear there are four levels in total: Beta from €5,000 (+1.5%), Beta Plus from €15,000 (+2%), Alpha from €40,000 (+2.5%) and Alpha Plus from €75,000 (+3%).
• If you drop below the threshold – as I just have – the lower rate applies to new investments.

My investments: when which money comes back

Under "My investments" you can sort the list, for example by "Time to repayment", i.e. by which investment comes back next:

Here you can also see why the interest forecast will soon drop: in two months I get around €1,000 back in total – twice €500 (Consumer Loans and Emania). From January their interest disappears from the forecast. I will of course reinvest the money so that the interest keeps flowing. And if I am back at Beta status by then, the new projects also get the 1.5% extra return – so a bit more interest should accrue in future.

After that, quite a lot comes back in six months (several positions), then a bit each in seven, eight and nine months. It is spread out quite well, so something flows back regularly.

Primary market: nine open projects

On the primary market the offering naturally varies all the time. When I recorded, there were nine projects you could invest in:

You always see the interest rates and loan periods straight away – currently 14.3 to 16.9% at 5 to 15 months. I mainly like short terms, so the project with 5 months (TANIR CREDIT, 16.9%) would be interesting for me, for example. But even 9 months as with ULTIMA FINANCE (15.2%) is still manageable.

Every card also shows the risk score – here BBB, AA and A, for example. You need to know one thing, though: the score is assigned by Maclear itself (scale AAA to D, its own methodology), not by an independent rating agency. I would always check everything again myself.

One project in detail: WOW Innovation

When you click on a project, you get all the details. In the video I opened a project from Germany, WOW Innovation:

• Funding target: €100,000 – of which €91,869.18 (91.87%) had already been invested, by 181 investors
• Interest: 16% per year, paid monthly
• Loan period: 14 months – the invested capital comes back at the end of the term
• Risk score: BBB, LTV 126%, credit history 8/10
• Collateral: equipment/company assets

Below that is the complete project description – according to it, WOW Innovation is a German Bitcoin mining company. And here I really advise everyone: even if it is a lot of text, take the time before you invest in anything. Read it through, at least understand it, and then decide whether you want to invest or not. The information is not just there for show – it is there so you can understand the project and the risk. At the very bottom you will also find the company details: you can research those yourself and look at what exactly the firm does. Definitely make use of this information.

Secondary market: bargains with a discount of up to 3%

Another thing I like to use on Maclear is the secondary market. It has worked really well here so far: I have bought there a few times and have also sold a few times as a test. When I recorded, there were 579 listings.

As a buyer you have two options:

• You buy projects with a short remaining term without a discount – simply to try the whole thing out.
• Or you sort by "Discount" and look specifically for listings at a discount.

Right at the top was exactly the project we have just looked at: WOW Innovation with a 3% discount – €4,850 instead of €5,000, with 13 months remaining. That is 3% extra return you can secure. Important for context: the discount is a one-off reduction of the purchase price, not an additional 3% per year.

Why do such listings exist? Mostly, investors who suddenly need liquidity and want out of a project list their shares at a discount so that it goes faster. The listing with the highest discount will probably also be one of the first to be sold. We as investors who think long-term can pick up a bargain or two this way. Another example from the list: ULTIMA FINANCE with 8 months remaining and a 2% discount. Pretty cool that you can pick up something like that.

You should not expect big discounts, though: the highest discount when I recorded was 3%, and many listings are at face value. And whether primary or secondary market – you always have to be aware of the risks. More on that in a moment.

3% cashback through my link

If you want to try Maclear yourself: through my Maclear link* you can secure an extra cashback that you do not get without a referral link.

This is how Maclear describes the terms (as of 5 October 2026):

• 3% cashback for new investors who register through a referral link or code
• on every investment from €50 on the primary market in the first 90 days after registration – secondary-market purchases do not count
• credited in euros to your balance once the project reaches the status "Funded"
• On top of that come the promotions Maclear grants all new investors: a €15 welcome bonus (first investment from €50 within 7 days of registration) and €30 per €500 that you invest in a project on the primary market. Both are credited as an additional investment in the same project.

For me, the bonus promotions have all worked so far. Still, check the current terms directly with Maclear before you start; conditions can change.

For transparency: this is a referral link. If you sign up through it, I receive a small referral commission – at no extra cost to you, and you support my work.

How safe is Maclear?

For all that is going well: you have to keep an eye on the risks.

• No EU licence. Maclear AG, based in Wallisellen (Switzerland), is a Swiss financial intermediary and a member of the self-regulatory organisation PolyReg. Maclear is not a bank, is not directly supervised by FINMA, and Switzerland has no dedicated crowdlending licence. Maclear holds no EU authorisation – for example under ECSP or MiFID II. According to Maclear it is pursuing the ECSP licence (blog post of 23 September 2026), but there is no date. There is no deposit insurance and no investor compensation scheme.
• Still young, not yet profitable. Maclear has not been on the market for long and does not have a long track record yet: according to Maclear, the first fundraising campaign ran in August 2023. The platform is not profitable yet – the published, still unaudited annual report for 2024 shows a loss of CHF 122,941 and negative equity.
• Credit default risk. Loans can default. There are protection mechanisms – collateral, a provision fund and a recovery process – but they are only ever as strong as the company behind them. Maclear itself states that it does not guarantee the return of capital.
• Risk score from Maclear itself. The rating does not replace your own check.
• The secondary market is not an emergency exit. It has worked well so far, but a sale is not guaranteed – it always needs a buyer.

Where there is a return of 15% or more, there is usually a high risk attached as well. You need to be aware of that.

My plan and verdict

So much for the short update. So far things really are running smoothly for me: I have tried out all sorts of functions – secondary market, deposit, withdrawal, the bonus promotions – and they have all worked.

My plan is simple: I stay at around €5,000, reinvest the next interest payments and use them to get back the Beta status with 1.5% extra interest. I am not adding more money here for now.

In general I find Maclear exciting because the platform offers extremely high returns. But as I have said several times now: high returns usually come with high risk. So: never put 100% of your money into Maclear – and only money you are prepared to lose in the worst case.

In general, P2P is considerably riskier than other investments, for example a globally diversified ETF. I myself currently have just under 20% of my total net worth in P2P, of which Maclear is only a small part – and I will even scale these 20% down to 10% in the long term. For me P2P is a diversification building block, but a very risky one, with which you can of course also achieve very high returns. You can see how Maclear fits into my overall P2P portfolio in the P2P Portfolio Update October 2026.

If you want to try Maclear yourself, feel free to use my link for the 3% cashback: go to Maclear through my link*.

Now I am curious: what is your opinion of Maclear, and what has your experience been so far? Let me know in the comments under the video.

Links marked with * are partner links. If you invest through them, you support my work – at no extra cost to you. Thank you!