Maclear Review 2026: Honest Test of the Swiss P2P Platform

Maclear review: the essentials

Maclear is a Swiss crowdlending platform for secured business loans to small and medium-sized companies in Europe. You invest from €50 per project, receive a fixed 14 to 16% a year depending on the project (the homepage headline says up to 15.6%), and interest arrives monthly. The operator is Maclear AG in Wallisellen near Zurich, a member of the PolyReg self-regulatory organisation.

The counters on maclear.ch show over 52,000 investors, more than €145 million funded, over €50 million repaid, one default and zero late loans. Behind them sit a thin balance sheet, a provision fund whose balance Maclear shows only inside the platform, and a Swiss domicile outside every EU supervisor.

This is our hub article. The details live in five deeper pieces: Is Maclear safe?, the Maclear bonus guide, the sign-up guide, 5 Maclear mistakes to avoid and 10 things to know before you invest.

Maclear explained in our video

If you prefer watching, our review video covers the same ground in nine minutes, from the bonus stack (01:23) and the four security layers (04:57) to the default (05:45) and the verdict (08:36).

More P2P reviews are on our channel.

What is Maclear and who is it for?

Maclear AG was founded in 2020, funded its first project in 2023, and had financed 1,967 projects by July 2026, so the track record covers roughly three years. It runs with fewer than ten full-time staff, according to its own 2024 annual report.

Before a loan is listed, Maclear checks the documents, runs AML and KYB checks on the company and its management, and works through a financial questionnaire of around 40 questions. The result is a rating from AAA to D that sets the interest rate and decides whether the project is listed at all. Every loan is backed by real estate, business equipment, machinery or personal guarantees of the owners, which Maclear holds as collateral agent on behalf of all investors. When you click Invest, you sign a claim purchase and assignment agreement, so the claim against the borrower belongs to you, not the platform.

Examples live at the time of writing: WOW Innovation (Germany, BBB) at 16% over 14 months, SESINF (Italy, A) at 14.5% over 13 months, ULTIMA FINANCE (Bulgaria, A) at 15.2% over 9 months and AGROPROGRES 2018 (Bulgaria, BBB) at 14.5% over 13 months. New investors in July 2026 came mostly from southern and western Europe: 19.65% from Portugal, 16.57% from France, 14.01% from Spain and 11.50% from Italy.

Maclear suits you if you already hold P2P positions, want a high-yield addition secured by real assets, and can live with the platform risk of a young, loss-making operator. It does not suit you if you may need the money within a year or want one platform to carry your whole P2P allocation.

What returns does Maclear really pay?

The base rate is 14 to 16% a year, fixed per project and locked in when the project reaches the status Funded; Maclear's FAQ dates the current rates from April 2026. Our own test account holds €1,045 in active projects at an average 14.54%, which produces an expected €12.59 of interest a month. Small money, but numbers from a real account rather than a marketing calculator.

The loyalty bonus adds +1.5% from €5,000 of active portfolio, +2% from €15,000, +2.5% from €40,000 and +3% from €75,000, fixed at funding and also counted on the secondary market. It does not simply add on top of a 16% project: Maclear's FAQ puts the ceiling at 16.5% a year including the loyalty bonus. The referral programme pays 3% to the referrer and 3% to the new user on every primary-market investment in the new user's first 90 days.

One thing gets mixed up constantly: the 14 to 16% is an annual rate. Cashback, the welcome bonus and the €30 tier bonus are one-off euro amounts for new users, not extra annual return. Three of them stack:

• •3% cashback on primary-market investments of €50 or more in the first 90 days after registration, paid as cash to your balance once the project is Funded. You get it via any referral link; without a link you do not.
• •€15 welcome bonus on a first investment of at least €50 within 7 days of registration (not of KYC), credited as a bonus position in the same project, not as cash.
• •€30 for every full €500 you invest in a project. Maclear adds up your total in that project and rounds it down to whole €500 blocks, so topping up later still counts and partial blocks pay nothing: €999 earns one €30 credit, €490 earns none. The cap is €300 per project below Platinum, and Maclear's leaderboard FAQ puts the Platinum cap at €1,800.

Worked examples: €500 in one project brings €30 + €15 + €15 = €60; €1,000 brings €60 + €30 + €15 = €105; €2,500 brings €150 + €75 + €15 = €240. All once, on top of the running interest, and the €15 and €30 positions stay locked until the project repays. The bonus guide covers every condition, including the leaderboard leagues added in July 2026.

Two dampeners. Interest only starts when a project reaches Funded, up to 10 business days after your confirmation, and reserved money earns nothing in the meantime. And the whole bonus stack is paid from Maclear's own pocket, not from borrower interest, which matters in the critics section below.

How safe is your money at Maclear?

Maclear describes four layers: due diligence and rating, collateral on every loan, a provision fund, and monitoring with a fixed escalation path. Each layer is real, and each has an edge you should know.

Collateral. "Every loan is secured" says nothing about how far the collateral reaches. Maclear's own LTV bands run from 40 to 80% (low risk) up to 160 to 200%, where Maclear itself writes that enforcement might not fully cover the capital if assets lose value. LTV is loan amount divided by collateral value and is printed on every project page.

Provision fund. Fed by 2% of every successfully funded project, held on a separate bank account, audited by Grant Thornton AG. It covers interest payments from day 3 of a delay, within the funds available. It is not insurance, not a legal guarantee, and it has never been activated. Maclear publishes the balance inside the platform and updates it regularly; its own blog post put the fund at €2 million in May 2026 on a page last updated in July 2026, while the public FAQ carries no figure.

Escalation. Day 3: the fund covers interest and Maclear investigates. Day 30: out-of-court collection. Day 60: legal proceedings and enforcement of collateral. Day 90: the claims transfer to Maclear, which becomes main creditor and distributes proceeds pro rata. You may not act against a borrower yourself, and Maclear may extend a loan term without asking you.

Supervision. PolyReg is a self-regulatory organisation supervised by FINMA; membership covers AML duties and is not a banking licence. Switzerland is a third country outside the EU, so Maclear holds no ECSP licence and is registered with no EU supervisor. No deposit guarantee scheme applies. A total loss of a position, or of everything if the operator fails, is possible.

If Maclear closes. Active loan claims remain yours and keep running; uninvested cash goes back to your verified bank account. If Maclear cannot transfer it and you do not provide updated bank details within 30 calendar days of being asked, the platform may dispose of the funds and your claim lapses.

The written version with every source: Is Maclear safe?

What did the first default in 2025 show?

In July 2025 the Italian company Vibroedil S.R.L. entered insolvency proceedings on a €150,000 loan funded through Maclear in three stages of €50,000. It is the only default in the platform's history so far.

Instead of pursuing the claim through the insolvency process, Maclear negotiated a private repayment agreement with the borrower. The provision fund was not used, and the public write-up followed in October 2025 on Maclear's blog. Every investor in the project received 100% of principal.

That is a good outcome and a single data point. It shows how Maclear handled one Italian SME that was willing to talk, in a history without a full credit cycle, and says nothing about how the process copes with three defaults in a quarter.

What the critics say about Maclear

Two of the English-language P2P sites that review Maclear advise against it. Most of their arguments are factually correct, so here they are with Maclear's response and where we land.

"The platform has negative equity." True. The 2024 annual report, published on 3 June 2026, shows equity of CHF −87,026 at 31 December 2024 after a net loss of CHF 122,941 (2023: CHF 118,379). EBITDA was close to zero at CHF −7,188, and shareholders injected CHF 55,000 during the year. In an accompanying letter, CFO and co-founder Aleksandr Lang states the negative equity openly, calls it "the cost of rapid growth, not of operational problems" and "a deliberate strategic choice", and expects equity to turn positive by the end of 2025. That expectation is not yet audited.

"Maclear pays investors more than borrowers pay in." Also true, and Maclear says so itself. In 2024 the platform paid CHF 827,849 to investors (CHF 530,266 interest plus CHF 297,583 bonuses) while borrowers paid CHF 464,322 in interest; the gap came from commission income. The bonus stack is an acquisition cost funded by the platform, which works as long as the platform keeps growing.

"Swiss domicile, no EU licence." Correct, see above. "The annual report came late." The 2024 report covers the year to 31 December 2024 and appeared on 3 June 2026, roughly 17 months later; Maclear's position is that a private company under Swiss law is not obliged to publish one at all and that it does so voluntarily. "The provision fund size is not disclosed." Not quite: no figure sits on the public FAQ, but the balance is published inside the platform, and the blog post with the €2 million figure is still online.

The same report books a provision of CHF 195,049 for anticipated losses from bad debts on loans, up from CHF 14,572 a year earlier.

Where we land: none of this makes Maclear a scam, and none of it makes it a place for money you cannot afford to lose. It is what its own numbers say: a young, fast-growing, loss-making platform whose bonuses come from its own cash. Whether you want that in your portfolio is your call.

Conditions, fees and withdrawals

Investors pay no fees for deposits, investments, AutoInvest or withdrawals. The one cost is the secondary market: 2.5% of the sale amount, charged to the seller only; buyers pay nothing and the minimum transaction is €30. Maclear says secondary-market commissions are to flow into the provision fund going forward. The 2.5% sits in the help centre, not in the T&C, so it could change without a T&C update.

Deposits run exclusively through Narvi Bank since April 2025; the old Wise account is closed. After a one-time activation (approval usually within 5 minutes) you get a personal virtual IBAN and SEPA Instant deposits arrive within minutes. Withdrawals take 1 to 2 business days of processing plus the bank transfer, minimum €50, only to a verified IBAN in your own name.

Onboarding. KYC runs through Sumsub and takes up to 10 minutes; a proof of address has to be completed as well before you can deposit. Form A, the one-time Swiss compliance document, only reaches you by email after your first investment and is signed electronically via Skribble; until it is signed you can make exactly one investment and AutoInvest stays locked. Maclear lists 44 countries (Europe, EEA and the UK), no US residents, age 18 to 85. The sign-up guide walks through every screen.

AutoInvest runs up to 10 strategies filtered by interest range, term, risk level, country and project type. Strategies are served before manual investors when a project opens, executed orders cannot be cancelled, and AutoInvest qualifies for every bonus. Early repayment pays your capital plus interest for the actual term, with a minimum of three months of interest.

Tax. No Swiss withholding tax is deducted. You declare the interest in your country of residence under its rules for interest income; check your national tax authority or a local adviser. Maclear provides a downloadable tax statement under Statements, Tax, where cashback appears as its own line.

Support runs through an in-platform chatbot and email to support@maclear.ch; there is no live chat with an agent. Maclear also employs account managers: one contacted us after our account had sat idle and offered a portfolio review by phone, WhatsApp or Telegram. Treat that as a service conversation, not advice, and do not assume every investor gets one.

Maclear conditions at a glance

Pros and cons at a glance

If any of the cons is a deal-breaker for you, that is a perfectly good reason to skip Maclear.

The beginner traps (partial €500 blocks, an unsigned Form A, selling right before an interest date) are spelled out in 5 Maclear mistakes to avoid.

Verdict: is Maclear worth it?

Maclear pays among the higher fixed rates we see in European P2P, backs every loan with collateral you can inspect, publishes an escalation protocol with hard day counts, and handled its one default cleanly. The same company lost money in both years it has reported, finished 2024 with negative equity, subsidises its bonus stack from its own cash, and sits outside every EU supervisory regime. Hold both sentences in your head at once.

For us, Maclear works as a small high-yield addition inside an existing P2P allocation, with the LTV checked on every project. It does not work as a first P2P platform, as a parking place for cash you may need within a year, or for anyone who reads "secured" as "cannot lose". A total loss of individual positions, or of the whole balance if the operator fails, remains possible.

If you try it, read the sign-up guide and the 10 things to know before your first deposit.