As a regulated entity, Afranga now has more to offer in terms of keeping investors’ funds safe. We have taken several important measures to significantly improve the security of the funds invested on the platform.
Key takeaways:
- All payments are handled by a licensed electronic money institution
- Investor funds are stored in a separate account for each investor
- Afranga is now a payment agent registered with the French Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority (ACPR)
- Uninvested funds are not part of Afranga’s balance sheet – they are available as deposits
Lemonway – our payment partner
Afranga has been approved as a payment agent of Lemonway – a French electronic money institution. This is a major milestone in improving the protection of investors’ funds. All investor funds are stored in separate payment accounts stored with and operated by Lemonway. Each investor has a dedicated account under their name. In the event Afranga goes out of business, investors’ can have access to their funds through Lemonway. All payments between investors and borrowers are handled automatically by Lemonway.
Lemonway account creation
Your Lemonway account is created automatically when you register on Afranga. When you deposit funds to Afranga, your funds will be credited to your Lemonway payment account. There’s no change in the user experience and no additional fees to investors.
Bank transfer speeds
Investors will experience a significant improvement in bank transfer speeds with SEPA instant. Investors making payments in euro will enjoy faster pay-ins and payouts to and from their Afranga account, typically within a few hours instead of 1-2 business days*.
*Payment speeds can be impacted by your processing bank and national holidays.
Afranga is now operated as a separate entity
We’ve separated Afranga into a new legal entity dedicated solely to operating the crowdfunding platform. This allows for more focus on the platform growth and product development. The new entity is fully regulated by the Financial Supervision Commission of Bulgaria and holds a license as a European crowdfunding service provider.
Investors’ funds are not part of Afranga’s assets, instead they are available as deposits in our payment partner Lemonway.
New security measures
As part of the platform upgrade we’ve taken investor account security very seriously and we’ve introduced a number of safeguards.
Enhanced two factor authentication
Investors can choose to log in to their Afranga account using two factor authentication. You can receive a temporary code via text message send directly to your mobile phone number or use an authenticator app depending on your preferences. We strongly advise you to active two factor authentication for your account to prevent unauthorized access.
Proof of bank account ownership
Account withdrawals are only allowed to approved bank accounts. To submit a bank account for approval, each investor has to present proof of ownership of the account. The procedure is carried out only once per bank account and after that the payout method is available in your investor profile.
More information
Find out more information about the new regulatory setup of Afranga in the series of articles we’ve published on our blog.