European investment platform Bondora says it remains committed to improving the credit industry for all customers.
Pärtel Tomberg, CEO and Founder of Bondora, has said:
“So far, we have issued credit agreements in accordance with the law and previous guidelines. We don’t foresee significant changes in lending conditions. I can reassure investors that credit hasn’t been issued in any loose or casual way.”
During the past few months, the Estonian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA) has “expressed further interpretation of the regulations and guidelines by sanctioning several market participants.”
According to a blog post by Bondora, this comes “partly due to an audit conducted by the National Audit Office over the activities of the EFSA.”
The National Audit Office has concluded “that the supervision of non-bank credit providers hasn’t been sufficient.”
On 12 July 2023, the EFSA had “issued a precept to Bondora AS, indicating deficiencies in their internal regulations for assessing consumer creditworthiness and granting consumer credit.”
The team at Bondora also mentioned that EFSA has “issued similar precepts to other respected credit providers and banks in Estonia, including Coop Pank, LHV Finance, Swedbank Liising, Luminor Liising, Holm Bank, and BB Finance.”
At Bondora, they’ve set up their loan-issuing process “based on applicable regulations and have been operating in line with the law.”
As an investor, you can know “with certainty that they’ve never issued credit without proper, thorough assessments and have always done it lawfully and followed previous guidelines.”
Bondora’s Plan of Action
Bondora says it does not “foresee disruptions in issuing loans as they’ll operate normally without increased risks.”
They also believe their risk levels “will be even more appealing after implementing the new changes.”
As noted by Bondora, the EFSA has “modified or augmented its interpretation of implementing responsible lending principles.”
As explained in a blog post, these refinements “weren’t previously communicated to them, but now they’ve been, and they’ll implement them.” They have “no objections to the EFSA.”
As mentioned in the update, the shortcomings identified by the EFSA are technical and don’t “insinuate any high-risk or unlawful activity on their part.”
For example, they’d now have “to supplement the credit file to reflect a clear calculation of creditworthiness and supplement internal regulations with even more detailed process descriptions.”
Bondora added:
“We’re actively applying all necessary tweaks. We’re ready to refine responsible lending principles with the entire market and will implement all required changes by 9 August 2023. As mentioned, we respect the EFSA and will be happy to follow their guidelines if further requests arise. Over the last 15 years, being a responsible financial partner has been at our core. And we remain dedicated to those principles, and our goal, of being your trusted wealth partner so you can reach your financial goals in a secure and reliable manner.”