P2P backer Varengold set to exceed profit forecasts
Peer-to-peer lending platform backer Varengold Bank looks set to exceed its profit forecasts for 2019.
The German bank issued a trading statement this week that said its earnings before interest and taxes for 2019 looks set to hit €3.6m (£3.5m).
Varengold said this exceeds its previous forecast of €3.2m.
It will release audited annual financial statements in June 2020.
The lender has funding agreements with a number of P2P lending platforms.
It announced a funding partnership with business P2P lender Assetz Capital in March 2019 and has previously provided funding lines worth £90m to MarketFinance.
Varengold Bank announced in 2018 that it was developing more partnerships with online lending platforms.
It said it is “significantly expanding” its marketplace banking business, with a team of 20 members now dedicated to the screening of loan platforms as potential partners.
Dr. Bernhard Fuhrmann, member of the bank’s board of managing directors, said at the time that there were “obvious” synergies between banks and marketplace lenders.
Banks bring regulatory expertise and financial resources to the table, while fintechs can rethink financial services from a customer perspective and have no IT legacy burden so are streets ahead technologically, he said.