We’re excited to announce that Afranga starts operations under a European crowdfunding service provider license issued from the Bulgarian regulator Financial Supervision Commission!
New growth path as a regulated institution
Obtaining a European crowdfunding service provider license marks a significant milestone for us. It’s an important step for us towards bringing company loans as an asset class to retail investors across Europe. Investing in company loans is now easier and more secure than ever before.
Transitioning our business model to become the first Bulgarian licensed crowdfunding platform has been a challenging but rewarding process for us. It’s been two full years to get here and I am excited to see the efforts of our team to come to fruition. The regulated setup paves a new way for Afranga to become the go-to crowdfunding platform for company loans in Europe.
Svetlin Sabev, Afranga CEO and Founder
What this means for our investors?
Afranga is now supervised by the FSC and this new regulated setup will bring many benefits to our investors with increased transparency and security of investor funds being key among them.
The license introduces to Afranga the Key Investment Information Sheet that will be part of each loan offering, bringing higher levels of transparency and risk disclosures to investors. Investors will also benefit from better internal risk controls and an ongoing oversight exercised by the regulator.
We’re very excited to become part of this process as it opens new doors for Afranga to onboard successful Borrowers from across Europe offering more investment options to our investors and improved portfolio diversity.
Major changes and key benefits
Risk disclosures
Investing in company loans involves risks of losing all or part of the invested capital. Investors will now find risk disclosures related to every loan in it’s accompanying KIIS document. We advise every investor to read carefully through the loan documentation provided on Loan Details page prior to investing.
Suitability and Appropriateness assessment
New investors will have to undergo a Suitability and Appropriateness assessment during the registration process. This helps Afranga to identify investor groups who have a higher risk of losing their capital and to offer them additional risk disclosures and limitations to protect their savings.
Investor categories
Investors can fall into two risk categories: Sophisticated and Non-sophisticated. Non-sophisticated investors benefit from additional risk disclosure and a reflection period prior to investing. Sophisticated investors benefit from higher investment limits and access to rich platform features.
Reflection period
Non-sophisticated investors benefit from a reflection period prior to investing in loans. They will have the option to opt out of an investment prior to the closing date without providing additional details for their decision. This allows non-sophisticated investors to withdraw from an investment which they consider holding a higher risk then they initially assessed.
Sophisticated investors have the option to opt in for a Non-sophisticated investor status upon their wish and benefit from higher risk controls and disclosures.
Separate legal entity
We’ve separated Afranga’s operations in a new legal entity Afranga eood, UIC: 206337510, registered at: Bulgaria, Sofia, 91 Aleksandar Malinov Blvd. The company’s assets are kept separate from other non-core business activities. This brings more security to the company’s operations and better focus on developing Afranga to become the go-to European platform for company loans.
Improved account security and control
The upgraded platform offers improved customer experience and more importantly improved account security and control. Investors benefit from two factor authentication and can access their account using their password in addition to an authenticator app or through a temporary code received as a text message to their personal mobile phone.
New products
Afranga transitions to a new business model away from concluding an assignment agreement between the investor and the loan originator. The regulated setup allows to offer an improved structure where the investor provides a direct loan to a company. Among the key benefits are the simplified process, more transparency and improved odds of recovery of the outstanding debt in case of borrower default.
The new regulated setup opens the doors for Afranga to offer to investors loans not only from lending companies but to expand to traditional business – bringing wider sectoral diversity and investment options.
Learn more about Business Loans.
Further information for investors
The transition to a regulated setup brings many opportunities and changes. We advise all investors to read carefully through the articles which provide a more in-depth look into the coming changes.
Switching your account from stikcredit.eu to afranga.com
And lastly, we thank all of our investors who have stayed with us during this challenging process!