TWINO Investments (TWINO), a global investment and trading platform, has obtained an investment brokerage license from the Latvian Financial and Capital Market Commission (FCMC) to prepare for the expansion of its investment brokerage operations in the European Economic Area. The FCMC issued license becomes effective as of today.
According to Anastasija Oļeiņika, a board member at TWINO Investments, Latvia was the obvious and logical choice of regulatory jurisdiction for an innovative fintech that has a strong presence in the country.
Today Latvia can be described as a place with a strong technology ecosystem with innovative companies. Therefore, having analysed several potential jurisdictions, TWINO chose to apply for the license in Latvia”, she explains.
TWINO collaborated actively with the FCMC over the course of many months to secure this license, drafting the necessary procedures and making adjustments to how the platform operates.
The licensing process took us more than a year and we express our gratitude to the Latvian regulator for dealing with our application in the most professional way”, adds A.Oļeiņika.
In the next 6 months, the newly acquired brokerage license will allow TWINO to shift to a new operational model, where investments in loans are packaged in the form of regulated financial instruments, applying the investor security guarantees prescribed by law for transactions. However, the protection mechanisms and benefits will not apply to existing investments in claim rights against borrowers. More detailed information about the transition period, the investor security mechanisms and criteria, the place for the provision of services, and associated risks, is available here.
The investment brokerage license helps also with TWINO’s plan to broaden its investment trading operations.
After a transition period of 6 months, the license will allow us to expand our product offering to European retail investors with trading of financial instruments such as stocks, bonds, CFDs, ETFs, and many more. Investors will be able to trade in part of these new securities already the first half of 2022”, Roberts Lasovskis, Chairperson of the Board of TWINO Investments reveals.
“Licensing is a major step that promotes the transparency of our industry, offering more security to our platform’s investors”, adds R.Lasovskis.
Acquiring the license has been time-consuming and challenging, but it’s absolutely worth it. It is very likely that the licensed companies will be the first choice for investors, and we can already see the growing investor interest, due to more security and the reimbursement guarantees that a regulated environment will provide”, he adds.
About TWINO Investments – a Regulated Marketplace
TWINO Investments is a regulated global investment and trading marketplace, which has taken over the work of the TWINO Investment Platform, the leading peer-to-peer lender in continental Europe. TWINO serves nearly 50,000 retail investors from 30 countries in Europe.
The TWINO Investment platform was established in 2015, providing retail investors with the opportunity to earn premium returns by investing in consumer loans through the company’s subsidiaries in Poland, Russia, Latvia, Vietnam, and elsewhere. Since its inception, investors have funded loans of more than 870 million euros and received more than 14 million euros in interest.
TWINO Investments sole shareholder is Armands Broks, a fintech entrepreneur with extensive experience in the industry, who established the TWINO international fintech group in 2009, issuing loans of more than 1.4 billion euros since its inception.
If you would like to read FCMC’s official Press Release, please click here.
