Aegon Invests €150 million through Auxmoney

€150m Investment by financial services and insurance giant is the largest-ever lending commitment to a continental European marketplace lender.

The international provider of life insurance, pensions and asset management, Aegon Bank NV, today announced a commitment to deploy €150 million in auxmoney.com, the German marketplace for consumer loans. 

This commitment by the banking giant is the first of its kind and has a read across for the wider sector with the implicit endorsement of one a major traditional financial services firm. Both paries are delighted with the agreement:

Auxmoney.com will benefit from the partnership of a large-scale investor like Aegon, which will enable the platform to reach more consumers with a reliable pool of capital. Raffael Johnen, Co-founder and CEO of auxmoney, commented:

“Our service helps people realise their dreams without having to rely on banks. The entry of large-scale investors like Aegon, is an important milestone in our mission to offer people a superior way to borrow money at attractive rates through a vital marketplace. The compelling loan performance of our platform and the growth of our marketplace put us in a unique position to service a sizeable and underserviced segment of Germany society.”

On the other hand, this is a great opportunity for Aegon to invest in p2p loans through a major P2P lender. Mike de Boer, CFO of Aegon, said:

“Our investment in auxmoney’s lending platform is a strategic move in times where we are witnessing consistently low interest rates. As an innovator in banking services we at Aegon Bank highly appreciate auxmoney’s remarkable technology and its impressive seven-year track record. They have convinced us to invest on this sophisticated credit marketplace and to establish auxmoney as a new pillar in our investment portfolio.”

As with most other developed world markets, Germany is currently experiencing ultra-low interest rates meaning that P2P loans represent one of the current most attractive asset classes. Founded in 2007, auxmoney.com is by far Germany’s largest credit marketplace according to the Liberum AltFi Volume Index for Continental Europe. The platform employs a sophisticated proprietary scoring and underwriting system. Other German platforms – Zencap, Lendico, FinMar, just to name a few - have been catching up with Auxmoney making Germany the third largest alternative finance market in Europe, with about €140 million funded in 2014.