Legal discalimer for business lenders

Credit Institution Institution is a company for which the primary and permanent activity is to take deposits from the public, issuing loans or providing other types of financing. Under the right to accept deposits, a credit institution can take such deposits from a group of previously unspecified individuals and re-invest these deposits under its name. The right to take deposits is only granted to Credit Institutions which comply with credit institution requirements, including a special operating license and additional requirements for management and organisational structures. In addition, a Credit Institutions have the obligation to observe the stipulations of the Anti-Money Laundering and Ant-Terrorism Laws. Further information on Credit Institutions can be found on the home page of the Estonian Financial Supervision Authority.

Given the fact that one of the pre-requisites for a Credit Institution is to take deposits (and taking deposits without a special license is illegal), it is impossible for a business accidentally to become a credit institution after registering with IsePankur.

A Financing Institution is a company which is not a Credit Institution but for which the primary and permanent activity is offering financial services, including issuing loans. A Financing Institution does not require a special license to operate, nor are there any additional requirements for management or organisational structure. The key characteristic of a Financing Institution is the permanent and primary nature of financing activities and as such, it is possible to become a Financing Institution as a client of IsePankur if lending is the primary and permanent activity of your business. A company can be considered a Financing Institution within IsePankur even if its lending activity via IsePankur is one-time or rare but if its primary activities outside IsePankur are those of lending. In case your company can be considered a Financing Institution, you will be responsible yourself for complying with the following anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism measures:

1. Determining the identity of a client or person participating in a transaction based on the data and documents provided by them and verifying the accuracy of the data from an independent source
2. Identifying the representative of the company and verify their right to the representation
3. Identifying the actual beneficiary in the transaction, including gathering information on the person, trust, non-for profit or a similar ownership structure based on an independent source of information
4. Gathering information on the purpose of the transaction
5. Monitoring continuously the transactions carried out, re-verifying identity documents and updating the data required for this monitoring activity

Ignoring these compliance measure can lead to a monetary fine and in certain cases to imprisonment. You can find further information on Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism requirements on the home page of the Anti-Money Laundering Agency.