ING and vc trade join forces to digitise lending

By Gloria Methri

ING bank has spun out its Loan Optics technology to vc trade GmbH, the digital platform in the market for private placement and promissory note loans.

Loan Optics enables all stakeholders in the syndicated loan market (banks, borrowers, lawyers, advisers, and agents) to cooperate on one central platform to originate, structure, document, and negotiate digitally native loans – creating digital loan data in the process.

Loan Optic’s functionalities will be integrated into the already existing vc trade platform to further enhance their loan collaboration solution. As part of the transaction, ING will become a shareholder in vc trade.

Since Loan Optics and vc trade are backed by market leaders in the syndicated loan industry, combining the most relevant solutions will strongly favour the digitisation of loan markets.

Jeroen Plag, global head of strategy and innovation at ING said, “After spinning out Stemly Pyctor and recently SparQ from ING, Loan Optics has been another innovation success story for ING. ING incubated Loan Optics, leveraging ING’s innovation expertise, deep digital data knowledge, and continuous input and feedback from major players in the syndicated loan market who acted as participants in the Loan Optics Working Group. We have found the perfect partner in vc trade to scale the Loan Optics technology to the next stage and to get it implemented much faster across the industry through vc trade’s existing customer base.”

Stefan Fromme, Co-Founder, and Managing Partner vc trade added “Our longstanding partnership with ING and concurring view on how the lending business will develop are building the fundament to join forces. Looking at the synergies and the highly complementary product offering of Loan Optics and vc trade, we strongly believe that the combination of the Loan Optics technology and the vc trade platform will add significant value to the loan markets and offer unparalleled benefits for borrowers, banks, lawyers, and agents alike.”