If successful, the deal could provide a template for small start-up banks in Europe to manage their loan books, making it easier for these so-called neobanks to raise money.
Greek payments company Viva Wallet is looking to raise half a billion euros to support its digital banking operations, sources familiar with the plans told Reuters, eight months after securing a banking licence through a merger with Praxia Bank.
The Athens-based company has hired Jefferies to advise on the 500 million euro fundraising, which will offer stakes in a new legal entity that will take on all Viva Wallet’s banking loans, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Viva wants to be a neobank without a loan book,” one of the sources said.
The fintech company wants to sell loans on its books to a special purpose vehicle (SPV) within 24 hours of finalising them, removing the risk from its balance sheet, one of the sources said.
This new structure shows how financiers in Greece have had to rethink traditional bank funding since the country’s sovereign debt crisis to help to regain the trust of customers and investors alike.
Viva offers cloud-based payments services in 23 European countries, providing payment in three currencies, the euro, British pound and Romanian leu.
Banking 4.0 – „how was the experience for you”
„So many people are coming here to Bucharest, people that I see and interact on linkedin and now I get the change to meet them in person. It was like being to the Football World Cup but this was the World Cup on linkedin in payments and open banking.”
Many more interesting quotes in the video below:
