Dutch direct lender NEOS partners on EUR 1 billion SME fund
NEOS, an innovative Netherlands-based direct lender, along with Schroders and KKR, whose contribution accounts for the largest share of the fund, entered the joint venture. The venture will support growing Dutch and German SMEs in the form of alternative and flexible financing. NEOS reports that the fund is the largest direct-lending program within the Europe for […]
Consumers’ mortgage behaviour: insights from the AFM
How can we encourage consumers to pay more attention to their mortgages? We spoke with Stefanie de Beer, senior supervisor and behavioural economist at the Dutch Authority for Financial Markets (AFM), about their research and new report, “Experimenting: Activating Learning Together.” Financial well-being is the hallmark of a healthy society. Yet most of us do […]
Week 27: Research at a Glance
10 years after the Global Financial Crisis: How has the World Economy changed and where will it go? by Institute for International Monetary Affairs This anthology of transcripts and models is a collection of discussions between regional experts (Japan, the US, the EU, and Asia) on their financial markets of expertise — 10 years after […]
ING invests in FinCompare, Funding Options in bid to expand presence in SME finance
ING bank‘s venture capital arm ING Ventures has pumped 10m EUR worth of Series A funding into FinCompare, a German comparison platform for SME financing options. With its investment in FinCompare, ING expects to fortify its presence in the German SME industry, of which it deems to be the most attractive in Europe. FinCompare plans […]
Kenya’s Central Bank & Indonesia’s Financial Services Authority to introduce regulation on fintech lending
In response to a boom in predatory lending practices, Kenya’s Central Bank and Indonesia’s Financial Services Authority (OJK) have proposed to introduce new regulations to rein in unscrupulous P2P lenders from preying on the unbanked and underbanked population. The Kenyan Central Bank and Finance Ministry have jointly issued a draft bill for public review and […]
Alternative finance: essentials
As the financial services industry is continuously being transformed, alternative finance offers new opportunities for those who are in need of capital. This article provides an overview of the alternative finance landscape with succinct descriptions of different alternative finance models. What is alternative finance? Broadly speaking, alternative finance can be identified as financing obtained from […]
Mortgage start-up Jungo partners with Aegon
Jungo, online mortgage provider lauched by IT company Topicus, announced partnership with Aegon as part of its innovative focus in the mortgage market. Jungo’s new platform will enable home buyers to crowdfund their mortgages. The idea behind Jungo’s platform is to allow crowdinvestors to invest directly in individual Dutch mortgages. By connecting supply and demand, crowdinvestors […]