Exclusive: Vereinigte Volksbank Raiffeisenbank, which is active in the fintech market, has gained another partner. The bank is cooperating with the corporate credit card specialist Pliant. The fintech is now introducing foreign currency loans – and is expanding its own credit limit with Volksbank to 200 million euros.
Just a few days ago, Ralf Magerkurth announced the plans: “We intend to continue to grow,” said the head of the Vereinigte Volksbank Raiffeisenbank (VVRB) in the Finance Forward podcast about his goal of working more closely with financial startups. Now the next partnership is already following: The bank will be cooperating with Pliant, a fintech specialist for issuing corporate credit cards.
Pliant customers will be able to receive loans in different currencies for the first time – not just in euros, but also in US dollars, British pounds or Swiss francs. There are eleven currencies in total. This will eliminate currency fluctuations and high exchange rate fees. Pliant secured a corresponding e-money license to operate such financial transactions around a year ago. The partnership with Volksbank also has financial advantages for the Berlin financial start-up: the credit limit that Pliant can pass on to customers increases to a total of 200 million euros. What’s interesting is that Pliant actually cooperates with its competitor Varengold, which even has a stake in the company – but has recently been struggling with problems.
Signal to the competition
“The collaboration with VVRB is a big step for us as we expand into new markets,” Pliant founder Malte Rau is quoted as saying in a statement. By expanding the refinancing options with external partners, the company is “the first digital card provider to be able to offer multi-currency credit lines,” says Rau. The business with corporate credit cards is highly competitive. In Germany in particular, various fintech providers have entered the market in recent years. In addition to Pliant, Payhawk, Pleo and Spendesk are active in this country, for example.
Recently, however, Pliant, which was founded in 2020 by Malte Rau and Fabian Terner, had established a strong market position. In the spring, the financial startup received a further 18 million euros from investors, and the US online payment service Paypal joined in. In addition, the company announced a major partnership with Commerzbank in June.
