geo/europe-and-central-asia
With potentially thousands of SMEs lining up to secure funds necessary for expansion or consolidation, new lending standards have now been introduced to ensure the safety of those borrowing money.
The new Standards of Lending Practice will replace the existing Lending Code, bringing enhanced protections for a wider range of businesses.
With the revised Payment Service Directive (PSD2) on the horizon, banking institutions are increasingly eager to take action - though most have yet to make a move - to get a head start on this new regulation and weather the storm of industry disruption that will no doubt ensue.
In Britain alone millions of people make formal complaints each year about their banks. For them, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, founder of Klarna, a Swedish payments startup, brings good news. New European rules, he says, will open the door to a host of innovative services that analyse transactions, so “an app could tell you there’s a cheaper mortgage available and start the switching process for you.” Apps could warn account-holders if they spend more than a predetermined amount or are about to become overdrawn, or even nudge them to save more.
This Report argues for reaching beyond increasing access to credit. Countries within Europe and Central Asia (ECA) must build integrated financial systems, enabling prudent inclusion in a region significantly lagging in the use of saving products. Striking the right balance across all dimensions of financial development (stability, efficiency, inclusion, and overall depth) is crucial for achieving and sustaining inclusive growth.
This EIF Working Paper investigates financing patterns of European SMEs by looking at different financing instruments and their complementary or respectively substitutive use, based on the SAFE dataset collected in 2015. Applying cluster analyses, the authors develop an empirical taxonomy of SME financing patterns in Europe. In order to investigate the cluster stability over time, they replicate an approach by Moritz et al. (EIF Working Paper 2015/30), who used the SAFE data from 2013.
This Working Paper summarises the current state of the external financing markets of the Social Enterprises targeted by the Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI) guarantee program. The report starts by elaborating on the interpretation of what constitutes a Social Enterprise under the EaSI program. It goes on to provide an overview of the EaSI Social Enterprise sector in Europe and a discussion of its external financing market challenges. It furthermore discusses initiatives undertaken to address the challenges Social Enterprises face on the debt market.
Global SME lending platform Bitbond today announced the closing of an equity funding round of $1.2 million (€1.1 million). This round brings Bitbond’s raised equity capital to a total of $2.3 million. Led by mobilike founder Şekip Can Gökalp, a number of business angels contributed to the round. Among them were Fyber founders Janis Zech and Andreas Bodczek as well as Kreditech co-founder & CEO Alexander Graubner-Müller. Bitbond will use the additional funds for further product development and to grow its user base in markets which are underserved by traditional lenders.
BankUP, a new fintech venture based in Kontich, Belgium, looks to tap into the European SME banking market. BankUp plans to launch in Q4 this year, co-founder Philip Lahey told Banking Technology at the recent Finovate conference in London. The start-up is currently looking for funding and bank partners. The countries on its radar are Belgium, Germany, Spain and Poland.
For banking and insurance, digitization could prove as disruptive as it has been for the media industry. Is that a risk to financial stability? Germany has put the topic on the G20 agenda.
For consumers, the new world of digital financial services is full of promise: Pay with a click, take a loan with your phone, whenever you want, wherever you are.
