Mintos launches regulated notes

Mintos has launched its long-awaited regulated notes today, which give investors better protection and transparency.

The European lending marketplace has been working on transitioning its loan investment product into loan-backed securities since it secured its investment firm and electronic money institution licence in August 2021.

Mintos announced today that it has launched notes on its marketplace from three lending companies: CashCredit, Eleving and SunFinance.

It urged investors to keep an eye out for additional lending companies in the coming weeks.

Under the new, regulated structure, Mintos investors will be protected by the MiFID II investor protection framework and their assets will be safeguarded as Mintos will need to keep investor funds separately from its own.

Investors will also have access to in-depth prospectuses about the notes, giving them increased transparency.

They will be protected by the investor compensation scheme, which provides compensation if Mintos fails to return financial instruments or investor funds to investors, up to a maximum of €20,000 (£17,034).

“We’re excited that our hard work on the set-up for investing in loans in a regulated environment has come to its fruition, and we can say with confidence that Mintos has raised the bar as we bring loans as an alternative asset class up to the standard of mainstream financial markets,” said Martins Sulte, co-founder and chief executive of Mintos.

“A clear and well-established regulatory framework such as MiFID II brings additional layers of protection and transparency for investors – something that’s crucial when it comes to an alternative and relatively new asset class.

“While the benefits bring more confidence to investors who are already investing in loans, they will also increase the attractiveness of loans as an investment for those on the fence regarding this asset class.”

Mintos customers will be able to invest in both the old loan investment product and the new notes until 30 June. Then from 1 July, they will only be able to invest in notes on the marketplace and buy and sell notes on the secondary market.

It expects to passport its services across the EU in the second part of the year.

Read more: Mintos focuses on transition to Notes following stellar December

Mintos previously said it was on track to launch the notes in the fourth quarter 2021 but this was delayed because of the limitations of local tax and institutional systems in some EU countries that “were not fully adjusted for new fintech products”.