Swiss fintech startup Loanboox has extended its range of services from the brokerage of public investments to the refinancing of the banking industry.
Loanboox, a Zurich-based fintech, has been rather successful so far with its strategy to serve a niche market. Four months after launching its digital brokerage service for the financing of public projects, the company had already requests worth 1 billion Swiss francs.
Stefan Muehlemann, the head of Loanboox, now aims to extend his firm’s product range to include the refinancing of banks with unsecured loans.
First Requests Online
The first refinancing request in interbank trading are online, according to a statement published by Loanboox. The volume amounts to 40 million francs, Muehlemann told finews.com in an interview.
Interbank trading is new and untested ground for online brokers, being so far dominated by offline traders. Transactions are agreed via phone and special chat forums. Some platforms are active in repo trading with collateralized loans.
Expensive and Slow
Loanboox says that the interbank trading business is not transparent, expensive, slow and insecure. That’s at least what Swiss banks told the fintech, despite the fact that they paved the way for more competition in the business.
The company has registered 25 banks on its platform, which posted 100 offers so far. They will now be able to use the same system for their own refinancing needs.
This may yet lead to more volume being brokered via the company’s platform. Loanboox has recorded requests for the financing of projects totaling 1.77 billion francs, with 1.4 billion concluded successfully.
