In our latest guest post Jorrit van Rijswijk of Dynamic Credit digs into all of the European SME support programs...
Business Insider provides data on the number of challenger banks by country; this week Carrefour Banque, a subsidiary of Carrefour, that also operates a multinational retailer, shared that they were launching a new current account under the name C-Zam; the retailer operates in 30 countries and has over 1,000 stores in France which puts them in a unique position to acquire customers; other players prevalent in the French market include BNP Paribas which launched Hello Bank in 2013 and ING Direct which launched in 2010; startups Qonto and N26 also operate in Europe. Source
A second regulatory reform focused on crowdfunding has gone into effect in France; the reform will broaden the offerings available for crowdfunded investing and lending; on crowdfund platforms, companies can now raise 2.5 million euros in equity funding through simple shares, plain vanilla bonds, preferred shares, participatory notes and convertible bonds; on crowdlending platforms, borrower limits were increased for qualified lenders to 2,000 euros individual lending per project; the reform also introduces new minibon debt securities. Source
French fintech has been nipping at the heels of the UK and Germany for some time. With significant support from the political agenda and increased VC funding, could they soon be the EU's fintech hub?
Businesses across Europe have reported vastly different experiences in their efforts to secure the financial support promised by their respective...
Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. The EU announced last week that it would suspend the Growth and Stability Pact....
Qonto is a french startup building a modern business banking solution, aiming to become "The banking alternative for entrepreneurs and startups" according to its website; the company raised $1.7 million from Peter Thiel's Valar Ventures and Alven Capital; Valar Ventures has also invested in digital bank N26 and TransferWise; Qonto wants to provide a wide variety of services including allowing receipt uploads to make filing taxes easier; they plan to integrate with other fintech products to transfer money and manage payments; launch is currently slated for April. Source
I spent a week in France and Germany recently to meet with the marketplace lending leaders there. I found a...
This November we will host our fifth installment of LendIt Fintech Europe in London. Although London is most often referenced...
The CEO and Co-Founder of Younited Credit talks banking, technology, Brexit, and his international expansion plans. Source