Aigis Bank, the fintech credit institute for SMEs was founded

Aigis Banca spa, the fintech lending institution that aims to offer synthesis services between fintech and traditional lending institutions, supported by automation and AI, was founded. The name Aigis – αίγις, comes from ancient Greek and means “aegis”, so it encompasses the meaning of protection, while the first two letters (“ai”) stand for artificial intelligence, evocative of the modern, digital and innovative character of the bank.

The bank, which was officially presented in recent days, was created following the transformation process of GBM Banca, which began at the end of January 2017, when the bank came out of extraordinary administration following its acquisition by Metric Capital Partners.

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Aigis Banca’s mission is to offer services that combine fintech and banking

Gruppo Bancario Mediterraneo (GBM) was a regional commercial bank historically focused on traditional lending to local small and medium-sized enterprises that entered into receivership in October 2015, after an investment of around $48.6 million (€40 million) to acquire the former Banca Federiciana in Andria, Puglia, which was followed by a period of continuous losses and capital erosion, until the Bank of Italy precisely established its receivership and the search for investors to take it over and thus avoid the forced liquidation of the institution. 

In January 2017, MCP Private Capital Fund II, through its subsidiary MCP Investment II sarl, took over 75.36% of the bank’s capital in partnership with Nicola Bonito Oliva (former manager of Dresdner Bank Italia) and Filippo Cortesi (one of the first managers of Banca Sistema), at the head of Wave Securities, arranger of the transaction, who in turn invested 21.43% through their November UK Ltd. The acquisition price was 7 million euros and at the same time the bank was recapitalized for $24.3 million (€20 million), with the aim of strategically repositioning it as a new generation credit institution.

Aigis Banca’s mission is to offer services that combine fintech and banking, supported by the use of technologies based on automation and artificial intelligence (AI), to guarantee rapid response times to all those entrepreneurs who wish to request financing, through online management of banking relationships and operations, regardless of their physical presence in the branch.

Aigis Banca has headquarters and branches in Milan, a representative office, and a branch in Rome, as well as a branch in Bari. “Our banking model is based on online management, the physical points are mostly flagship stores to make us recognized by customers and possibly welcome them, but in fact, customer services are offered mainly online,” Cortesi explained.

Aigis Banca adopts a model focused on the financing of SMEs by leveraging public guarantees (MCC and Sace), and specialist solutions such as factoring, an ideal tool to optimize the management of working capital. The bank responds to the financing requests of SMEs in 2-3 weeks and expects to further reduce the response time. 

Aigis Banca also collects consumers’ savings through deposit accounts and current accounts that are remunerated at a rate of 0.5% and at zero charges (if the minimum balance is 3 thousand euros and utilities/salary/pension are credited to the account). The new bank also benefits from strategic partnerships with market-leading fintechs, including Italy’s Modefinance. Aigis Bank currently employs 50 people with an average age of around 35 and management with an average age of 40.

To date, the bank has loans to SMEs of $365 million (€300 million) and factoring volumes of $607.5 million (€500 million). The bank’s business plan aims to double both values by 2022, reaching $729 million (€600 million) for loans and a turnover of one billion for factoring. In 2020, the bank has already achieved the volume targets set for 2021. The bank has 15,000 customers, of which 10,000 are in Germany.

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(Featured image by Kookay via Pixabay)

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First published in Be Beez, a third-party contributor translated and adapted the article from the original. In case of discrepancy, the original will prevail.

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