With the approval of the Bank of Lithuania, the European Central Bank has granted a banking licence, which allows to lend and accept deposits, to the quickly-growing financial company PayRay. This will allow PayRay, a provider of factoring services and microcredits, to further expand its range of services and to serve its clients even better.
“By offering high value-added solutions for financing the working capital and business development of small and medium-sized enterprises, we have managed to secure our position in the Lithuanian market in just over a year and have demonstrated great results. After analysing the needs of our clients and the market outlook, we made a strategic decision to expand PayRay’s scope of business and applied to the responsible authorities for a banking licence. Their positive decision to issue a full banking license marks a new and important step, both for us as a company and for our clients,” said Renato La Fianza, CEO at PayRay.
According to Mr La Fianza, PayRay will be beneficial to the Lithuanian economy as it will contribute to an increasing competition in the financial sector. PayRay is offering working capital funding solutions to businesses of different size and is presenting itself as an alternative to other banking sector players currently operating in Lithuania. Having found a niche market for banking services, PayRay will soon announce ambitious plans for an expansion – both in terms of the range of its services, and in terms of its business geography.
The company has recently expanded its range of services to include microcredits in collaboration with the European Investment Fund (EIF). Microcredits are provided to small farmers and enterprises with no more than 9 employees. The annual turnover and the amount of assets these enterprises carry should not exceed EUR 2 million. The company is planning to issue up to a total of EUR 10 million of microcredits, with guarantees from the EIF.
All of this means more opportunities for small and medium businesses operating in the country that need a variety of financing solutions.
“As our monitoring shows, the financing needs of the businesses are constantly rising. Surveys and meetings with business representatives provide evidence that they are increasingly interested not only in classical credits, but also in credit services, tailored to the client‘s needs, activity and its scale“, noticed Mantas Zalatorius, President of the Association of Lithuanian Banks.
more opportunities for small and medium businesses
PayRay began operating in Lithuania in June 2018 as a factoring services provider, and was then called Vilnius Factoring Company. Since the beginning of our operations PayRay financed invoices of EUR 165 million. The company has increased its factoring portfolio to EUR 28 million, and has 150 business customers.
The company currently employs over 20 experienced finance professionals.
PayRay’s authorised capital is EUR 20 million.