Lendico, a peer to peer lender that has not let national barriers get in the way of expansion, announced on Monday that it has teamed up with Swiss financial services, PostFinance, for a new Switzerland joint venture. The P2P platform revealed that as part of its European expansion, it has founded Lendico Schweiz AG. The company explained in a press release:
“From the last quarter of 2016 onwards, the company will facilitate crowdfunding for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Switzerland. It is entering the market in close collaboration with PostFinance, a subsidiary of Schweizerische Post. With a balance sheet total of more than 119 billion Swiss francsPostFinance is among the five largest Swiss banks and the market leader regarding payment transactions.”
Lendico stated, the venture is to provide the Swiss SMES with a modern alternative to traditional bank financing. Both it and PostFinance will contribute their expertise in customer contact, along with the entire lending and repayment process to the venture. Co-founder and managing director of Lendico, Dr. Dominik Steinkühler, shared:
“With 110 years of experience in Swiss banking services and around three million customers, we can think of no better partner than PostFinance for our entry into the Swiss market. As part of the continued expansion of an international credit marketplace, this joint venture represents a significant step in our business development.”
Hansruedi Köng, CEO of PostFinance, then added:
“Our vision for this cooperation is to take crowdlending in Switzerland from niche status to the mass market. The combination of Lendico’s innovative capacity and our structures in Switzerland offers the best conditions for Lendico Schweiz AG to become a market leader in the future.”