‘So far, we have issued credit agreements in accordance with the law and previous guidelines. We don’t foresee significant changes in lending conditions. I can reassure investors that credit hasn’t been issued in any loose or casual way.’ – Pärtel Tomberg, CEO and Founder of Bondora.

Background

During the last few months, the Estonian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA) has expressed further interpretation of the regulations and guidelines by sanctioning several market participants. This comes partly due to an audit conducted by the National Audit Office over the activities of the EFSA. The National Audit Office has concluded that the supervision of non-bank credit providers hasn’t been sufficient.

On 12 July 2023, the EFSA issued a precept to Bondora AS, indicating deficiencies in our internal regulations for assessing consumer creditworthiness and granting consumer credit. (The official translation is unavailable at the moment, but the Estonian precept is here.)

The EFSA has issued similar precepts to other respected credit providers and banks in Estonia, including Coop Pank, LHV Finance, Swedbank Liising, Luminor Liising, Holm Bank, and BB Finance.

At Bondora, we’ve set up our loan-issuing process based on applicable regulations and have been operating in line with the law. As an investor, you can know with certainty that we’ve never issued credit without proper, thorough assessments and have always done it lawfully and followed previous guidelines.

Our plan of action

We don’t foresee disruptions in issuing loans as we’ll operate normally without increased risks. We also believe our risk levels will be even more appealing after implementing the new changes.

The EFSA has modified or augmented its interpretation of implementing responsible lending principles. These refinements weren’t previously communicated to us, but now they’ve been, and we’ll implement them. We have no objections to the EFSA.

The shortcomings identified by the EFSA are technical and don’t insinuate any high-risk or unlawful activity on our part. For example, we’d now have to supplement the credit file to reflect a clear calculation of creditworthiness and supplement internal regulations with even more detailed process descriptions.

We’re actively applying all necessary tweaks. We’re ready to refine responsible lending principles with the entire market and will implement all required changes by 9 August 2023. As mentioned, we respect the EFSA and will be happy to follow their guidelines if further requests arise.

Over the last 15 years, being a responsible financial partner has been at our core. And we remain dedicated to those principles, and our goal, of being your trusted wealth partner so you can reach your financial goals in a secure and reliable manner.

If you want more information or would like to talk to an Investor Relations agent, please feel free to contact us on our support site or via the support chat box on your Dashboard anytime. We’re happy to assist and answer your questions.