We’re excited to announce that Mintos has secured investment firm and electronic money institution licenses from the Latvian regulator Financial and Capital Market Commission!
Trailblazing loans as a mainstream asset class
Obtaining investment firm and electronic money institution licenses marks a significant milestone for us. It’s an important step towards bringing loans as an asset class into the mainstream investment market – making investing in loans as common as stocks, real estate, or any other traditional asset class.
“Adjusting the business setup and aligning all of the regulatory and licensing requirements has been a unique journey for us and the regulator. It took us almost two years to get here and I am very pleased to see this come to fruition. The work with the regulator has been very constructive, ensuring that we and those that will follow implement best practices when it comes to the regulated setup and investor protection.”
From now on, Mintos is supervised by the FCMC of Latvia and the fully regulated setup will bring multiple benefits for investors on Mintos with increased transparency and investor protection being key among them.
As previously announced, now that Mintos is a regulated marketplace, we will begin to gradually transition investments in loans into the form of the regulated financial instrument – Notes. Once released, clients will be protected by the MiFID II investor protection framework, Prospectus Regulation, Packaged retail investment and insurance products (PRIIPs), Investor Protection Law and other regulations which aim to further protect the interests of the investors. In addition, as part of the regulation that’s now binding for the company, investors on Mintos will be protected by a national investor compensation scheme established according to the requirements of EU Directive 97/9/EC. These protection frameworks do not apply to the current type of investments in claim rights, as those are not financial instruments, but will apply to investments in Notes.
We’re also excited to share that in addition to Notes, the investment firm license will allow us to offer other new investment products to retail investors, such as ETFs – we look forward to sharing more information on this in the near future.
The transition period for the new financial instrument: Notes
Along with us becoming regulated, the transition to Notes starts today. To ensure this transition is as smooth as possible for investors, we will be gradually replacing the current system of investments in claim rights. We will do this by decreasing the number of claims and increasing the number of Notes available for investment. The first offering of Notes is expected to launch in the coming months.
We anticipate this transition period to be no longer than 6 months and we’re eager to finalize the transition even sooner. So by the end of January 2022 at the latest, we expect to offer investments in loans in the form of Notes only. Any loan investments that have been made as claims will continue to exist in investors’ portfolios until they amortize.
Following the transition period, we will initiate the passporting of our operations across the EU/EEA. Meanwhile, Mintos will continue to offer its services in Latvia, irrespective of an investor’s country of origin and type of investment (claim rights or Notes).
More information regarding Notes will be released on our blog soon.
What investors need to know now that we’re regulated
Updated Terms and Conditions
Today we’re going to email our investors the new Terms and Conditions of the Mintos Investment Platform (previously known as the User Agreement). Now that Mintos is regulated, the Terms and Conditions detail the respective changes on the marketplace as well as functionality updates for investors. Once received, there will be a 30-day period for investors to get acquainted with the updated terms and conditions, ending on 19 September 2021. Investors, please keep an eye out for this email!
Suitability and Appropriateness assessment
To enjoy the benefits of investing on Mintos in a regulated environment, new and existing investors need to complete a Suitability and Appropriateness assessment. Please note that investors who don’t complete the assessment will have their services on Mintos restricted.
Some investors may also have additional requirements to complete, such as contact and tax residence details, identity verification, and AML related client forms. To ensure you can continue investing uninterrupted, please visit your profile to review the checklist which will detail any requirements that are still to be completed. Importantly, starting from 19 September 2021, investors with unverified accounts will face account closure.
Investor categories on Mintos
Now that Mintos is regulated, investor categories – which have already been attributed to your investor profile, are active. The investment firm license requires Mintos to assign investors one of three MiFID II status categories (retail client, professional client, or eligible counterparty) to make sure they receive the appropriate protection and support for their level of experience, knowledge, and expertise. If you don’t agree with the category assigned to you, it’s possible to apply for a category change by contacting Mintos Investor Services Team.
Information on risks
Investing in loans involves risk. Information on risks when investing on Mintos is provided on mintos.com in the updated Investing and Risk section. Along with the release of Notes, we will be updating this section and invite investors to get acquainted with it.
Further information for investors
If you would like to see all of our new policies and procedures related to Mintos becoming regulated, please visit the newly created Terms and Policies page on mintos.com.
In addition, we kindly invite you to take part in the dedicated discussion group on Mintos Community. This is a space where you can see what other investors are talking about, share your thoughts, and ask any questions to the Mintos team.
We would also like to invite investors to join us in an upcoming call, during which we’ll share more about our plans now that we’re a regulated marketplace and answer any investor questions.We’ll announce the details of this call on our blog shortly.
A big thank you to our engaged stakeholders
We’d like to thank all of our engaged stakeholders throughout this process – the Financial and Capital Market Commission of Latvia and others who supported us with consultations and advice during the process of becoming regulated.
Last but not least, we’d like to wish our biggest thank you to our community of investors who have supported us during this transition!
