Ali Niknam/bunq
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Bunq grows mortgage portfolio by 400 per cent in less than six months
Bunq only started offering its Dutch customers mortgages back in July.
Dutch challenger bank bunq has grown its mortgage portfolio fourfold in less than six months.
The digital bank first announced that it would be offering its customers mortgages, in partnership with third party broker, asset manager NN IP, back in July of this year.
NN IP would offer the loans through bunq’s app, with bunq diverting around €100m worth of customer deposits to help fund the venture.
It seems the move to enter mortgages has paid off, with bunq seeing its portfolio expand by a massive 400 per cent since it first opened applications.
Ali Niknam, CEO and founder of bunq, said: “Our users indicated the wish to help others get their houses.”
“We listened and started investing in mortgages. Today I’m very proud to announce that we’re executing at full bunq speed by growing over 400%!”
Currently, Bunq’s mortgages are only available to its Dutch customers, and two-thirds of Bunq’s home loans will be covered by the Dutch government’s insurance scheme, which guarantees homes up to €310,000 in the event the borrower defaults.
Just like with other investment opportunities on Bunq, users of the challenger bank can choose to invest in the personal mortgages if they want, using the Freedom of Choice function.
In the first six months of the year, bunq also saw its customer deposits jump up by €200m, from €433m to €633m.
Unlike its peers who seem to be reducing the number of offices, bunq also announced that it is planning to open an office in Rotterdam imminently.
Earlier this year, speaking at the AltFi Festival of Finance, Niknam cemented his view on the importance of having an office, even in light of Covid-19: "It is somewhere where we get together, it’s somewhere where we share dinner, it’s somewhere where we share lunch, it’s somewhere where we share drinks, it’s where creativity flows.”
bunq also became the first digital bank to offer Google Pay in Portugal and the Netherlands last month, after Apple Pay first got made available in both countries in 2019.
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