Articles featuring:
SME Lending
Originator Spotlight/ creditshelf
Founded in 2014, creditshelf is a lending platform focused on the German Mittelstand, supporting the capital needs of businesses while allowing institutional investors to gain exposure to this segment. With many German banks becoming increasingly risk averse, demand for financing among SMEs, including working capital, is set for steady [...]
Digital lenders set to see spike in demand from businesses as Covid guarantee scheme loans expire
With European government aid schemes coming to an end, digital lenders have a lucrative opportunity to write considerably more business. Traditional banks are often reluctant to dive head first into the SME sector - they often don’t have the back-end infrastructure they need to make servicing large numbers of [...]
The role of private debt as a portfolio diversifier for institutional investors
Amid the low yields on offer on traditional fixed-income assets, private debt is emerging as a strong alternative. For institutional investors, adding private debt exposures to their portfolios can help improve diversification due to the low correlation of private debt to equities and fixed income, as well as an [...]
Building industry standards for lending platforms in Germany
Alternative lenders are playing an increasingly important economic role in funding businesses, in Germany and across Europe. In 2021, the amount of lending to businesses through German marketplaces totaled 11.4 billion euros. At the same time, growing participation on the funding side by institutional investors has led to a [...]
Originator Spotlight/ Finora Capital (Lithuania)
Based in Vilnius, Lithuania, Finora Capital is a fast growing digital lender focused on providing working capital loans to small and micro enterprises. With origination volumes of 9.5 million euros in 2021, the company recently signed a guarantee agreement with the European Investment Fund (EIF) that should help it [...]
Supporting SME Funding as part of the COVID-19 economic recovery
Over the past few months, in the face of a global pandemic, Ireland’s health care systems and citizens have been tested by uncertainty and scarcity. As the new Irish coalition government ‘beds in’ and the economy begins to reopen, businesses now face a similar uncertainty and scarcity. But for [...]