Puzzle no more with BNI Europa’s prompt consumer credit platform
Subsidiary of Angolan bank, Banco de Negócios Internacional
Challenger Banco BNI Europa (BNI) has unveiled “Puzzle”, a digital and real-time credit approval process for the Portuguese market.
Don’t be confused by the name, the bank says Puzzle is “simple, and non-bureaucratic”; and it even cites the Lending Club in the US, or Zopa in the UK by way of comparison.
Puzzle offers credit up to €3,000, and different payment maturities; and is intended to be a “quick response to small credit needs”. According to BNI, the application process takes a few minutes, with money in a bank account within 24 hours after approval.
For the credit decision process Puzzle uses machine learning algorithms, that “allow better identification of the client´s payment capacity, and thus cover some market segments such as independent or freelance professionals hitherto not served by the current financial sector offer”.
BNI is in a bumptious mood as it reckons the Puzzle platform will give rise to a credit volume of €300 million within three years in the Portuguese market. At a later unspecified stage, BNI says it considers the possibility of entering other European markets.
In May this year, the bank, which was launched in 2014, doubled down on some funding fun.
It will invest €10 million in Portugal’s largest peer-to-peer (P2P) lender, Raize, over the next two years. Raize currently has more than 10,000 investors lending to SMEs. The platform expects to lend more than €15 million in 2017.
Also, MarketInvoice, a peer-to-peer online invoice finance marketplace, signed an agreement with BNI to provide £45 million in funding annually to fund working capital solutions for businesses across the UK. BNI trialled an investment last year (£28.3 million).
The Angolan angle
Lisbon-based BNI is a subsidiary of an Angolan bank, Banco de Negócios Internacional (BNI). The European subsidiary was set up in 2014, hence its reference as a “challenger bank”.
BNI Europa says its mission is to offer “a modern digital low-cost banking platform and innovative banking products” that are essential and tailored to customer needs, “instead of complex products that few understand and require even less”.
It is looking to partner with fintech companies to launch new products and “tries to exploit niche markets untapped by traditional banks”. It offers savings and lending products to individuals and businesses.
It says it has the highest growth rate among digital banks in Portugal today.
