More than four years after the acquisition of the peer-to-peer lending platform operator Lendico (website), ING is now fully integrating the fintech into its own business. In doing so, the Dutch want to expand business banking as a third pillar.
ING wants to expand its business banking segment further, i.e. digital lending to smaller SMEs and the self-employed. According to the bank, it plans to fully integrate the lending platform Lendico into the business area for this purpose. ING said it wants to use this to unify its brand presence and “bundle digital SME financing under one roof.” The approximately 150 employees will continue to work in Berlin.
This will provide “a uniform offering” for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with annual sales of up to EUR 50 million. In this way, additional “resources within the global ING network can be used even better, for example, in IT,” the bank argues. ING wanted to pay more attention to IT anyway. At the beginning of the current year, the Dutch had newly created the position of Chief Information Officer (CIO).