bankless life

Financial Services Authority Closes Bankless-Life

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Austrian p2p lending service Bankless-Life (see earlier coverage on Bankless-Life’s launch) was closed by the FMA, the authority supervising banking regulation in Austria. The FMA sent an order to Bankless-Life on Dec. 22nd, demanding it to stop arranging loans, since it lacks the necessary concessions. Today FMA issued a notice to the public, informing potential lenders that the offering of the service is not in compliance with the law.

Bankless-Life.at has published a statement on their website on planned legal steps against the order to close.

Bankless Life Launches P2P Lending in Austria

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Bankless-Life.at was launched as the first p2p lending service in Austria by the non-profit association “Von Menschen für Menschen” (engl. by humans for humans). The members-only site (membership fee is 60 Euro per year) allows borrowers with a given minimum credit score and a minimum income requirement of 1,000 EUR per month to apply for loans between 1,000 and 30,000 EUR. The wanted interest rate is set by the borrower, selectable loan terms are 12, 24, 36, 48 or 60 months.

Lenders are charged 3 Euro per bid. The fees for borrowers are rather high: In addition to the membership fee borrowers pay 0.5% to 2.5% (depending on term) origination fee, 0.8% tax plus 2% premium of the loan amount for the Anleger-Pool, which is a mechanism similar to the one used by German Smava spreading default loss risks among lenders.

According to chairman Siegfried Fischer Bankless Life has 1,800 members two weeks after launch.

The German blog P2P-Kredite.com has more details in yesterday’s article ‘Bankless- Life startet P2P-Kredite.com Österreich‘.