Can you make a loan as an investor?

In recent years, the role that banks have been given as gatekeepers of the financial world has tightened enormously. A role not to be envied, since they must perform that task in addition to achieving their commercial goals. In addition, it is enormously frustrating when the government also lacks the capacity to follow up on the reports that are made. Anyway, every profession has its own challenges shall we say.

In all the zeal to perform the gatekeeper role properly anyway, regulations can be misinterpreted. Private lending existed before the first florin rolled out, but now we find that relationships are getting questions about this from their banks. Can you make a loan as an investor?

A real-life example

A relation of mine has provided some financings after mediation by WDL and is now being asked whether he is licensed for this, as these lenders have emerged from the customer survey. For all readers who provide financing or who work in a KYC department, here is a response a relation of ours had from the AFM:

“Offering credit falls under Article 2:60 of the Financial Supervision Act (Wft). There is lending if it involves providing consumer and/or mortgage credit to consumers. If the financing is purely business, it falls outside the scope of the Wft. This is because the definition of credit only looks at advising/mediating/offering credit to consumers.”

Providing a business loan is outside the scope of the Wft

In short, providing a business loan is thus outside the scope of the Wft. Be aware of this if you get such questions fired at you from the bank or are going to fire them as a cordial KYC officer. This prevents a lot of frustration and hassle and only benefits your customer relationship!

And don’t get me wrong: this is not an indictment of the fact that surveillance takes place. Supervision is very important and necessary. I just fear that some translation errors from the regulator to the final gatekeepers are taking place.

So let those euros roll with confidence to quality and reliable SME entrepreneurs. This allows them to maintain access to sufficient capital, which is necessary to realize their plans.