# River for Lenders River gives on-chain lenders access to asset-backed credit. The underlying assets are portfolios of receivables: consumer loans, business loans, invoice payments, merchant cash advances, buy-now-pay-later balances, and other short-duration credit originated by fintech platforms. Those platforms need funding. Lenders supply it through River deals. In return, they receive class tokens that represent a position in the deal's capital stack and pay interest as cash coupon. River handles the structure around that exposure: eligibility, servicing, reporting, covenant monitoring, reconciliation, settlement, exits, and loss allocation. The important economic rules are enforced by smart contracts, so a lender can see how capital moves, how value is marked, and how every payment is applied. ## The assets River deals are built on portfolios of real receivables, originated and serviced by fintech partners. Asset classes include: * **Consumer receivables** - installment and personal lending * **Credit card receivables** - revolving consumer balances * **Buy-now-pay-later** - short-duration checkout financing * **SMB receivables** - small-business lending and merchant cash advances * **Invoice and trade finance** - business receivables awaiting payment * **Equipment and asset financing** - leases and secured business credit These portfolios are typically short duration, granular, and self-liquidating. Borrowers repay on their own schedules, and those payments are the source of lender coupon and principal return. ## The lender choice Each deal can have one class or many. In a tranched deal, every class sits at a different point on the risk and yield curve. | Class | Paid | Losses | Typical profile | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Senior | First | Last | Lower yield, more protection | | Junior | Last | First | Higher yield, first-loss protection | The junior class is the protection layer that makes senior exposure possible. Junior lenders earn more because they stand in front of losses. Senior lenders accept lower yield because that cushion sits beneath them. ## The instruments River class tokens are designed to behave like credit instruments: * **Principal is tracked separately.** A class share is priced from the deal's marked NAV. * **Interest is paid as cash.** Coupon becomes claimable when the servicer funds it. * **Losses are visible.** A realized or expected loss reduces NAV through the waterfall. * **Compounding is optional.** The accumulating wrapper collects coupon automatically and rolls it into a single ERC-4626 share price. Both forms represent the same economic exposure. ## Contents 1. [Depositing](/lenders/depositing) - how capital enters 2. [Earning](/lenders/earning) - how interest is paid 3. [The Accumulating Wrapper](/lenders/wrapper) - how coupon can compound 4. [Withdrawals & Exits](/lenders/withdrawals) - how capital leaves 5. [Losses & Impairments](/lenders/losses) - how losses and recoveries are allocated Every deal carries the same standing protections: fair pricing at entry and exit, owed funds that remain claimable, fresh valuation reports, and settlement that must balance exactly on-chain. The full machinery is documented in the technical sections: [Protocol Architecture](/architecture) and [Accounting](/accounting/dual-nav).