FINLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Olli Kiuru, Jere Lehtimäki and Essi Hietaoja, Waselius
Positive Credit Register (739/2022) and the Credit Information Act (527/2007), industry participants fall within the scope of these acts in addition to the CPA. The consequence for consumer credit providers is threefold: • they are to ensure adequate privacy protection whilst processing credit information; • they are obliged to assess the creditworthiness of consumers in light of correct and appropriate information; and • they are to advance good practice of credit infor - mation. With regard to the provision of loans to businesses, no creditworthiness assessment is required by law. Nevertheless, for obvious reasons, industry partici - pants generally prefer to review the credit information of all borrowers even where doing so is not required under law. Since 1 December 2025, lenders have been able to report loans granted to natural persons other than consumers (eg, sole traders) to the positive credit register. The data will be available for lenders to use from 1 April 2026 onwards. 4.3 Sources of Funds for Fiat Currency Loans Peer-to-Peer Online lenders may fund their fiat currency loans by facilitating P2P lending, which refers to the provision of loans between private individuals or companies without the involvement of a bank or another finan - cial institution. In such a case, the online lender may facilitate P2P lending by, for instance, providing a plat - form for the parties involved in the P2P transaction; in other words, the borrower and the lender engage in an electronic money transfer via an intermediary – in this case, the online lender. The legal and regulatory consequences depend on whether the online lender merely connects the P2P parties with its platform or whether it also adminis - ters the payments between the parties. Where online lenders facilitate the provision of credit to consumers that was granted by an entity other than a credit pro - vider referred to in Chapter 7 or 7a of the CPA, their operations require registration with the FIN-FSA as a P2P intermediary. Administering the payments may, in turn, amount to money remittance, which, pursuant
to the PSA, is a payment service and thereby renders the online lender a payment service provider. In this case, the PIA will also apply, and the online lender will be required to seek authorisation from the FIN-FSA. Lender-Raised Capital Online lenders may also fund their fiat currency lend - ing by borrowing funds from other lenders. By doing so, however, the online lender will be deemed to be a credit institution in accordance with the CCR (and the ACI), and it will therefore be required to comply with the provisions set forth therein. In order to engage in practices pertinent to credit institutions, the online lender will need to file for authorisation with the FIN- FSA prior to commencing said lending activities. Other legal and regulatory implications of lender-raised capi - tal lending include that the online lender must ensure it has sufficient capital of its own, pursuant to the CCR. Repayable Funds As is the case with lender-raised capital, and as stated in 4.1 Differences in the Business or Regulation of Fiat Currency Loans Provided to Different Entities , companies that finance their fiat currency lending activities via repayable funds are deemed to engage in credit institution operations and will thus fall within the scope of the CCR and the ACI. 4.4 Syndication of Fiat Currency Loans In contrast to legacy players engaging in the syndica - tion of large fiat currency loans, small consumer credit loans provided by fintech entities are generally not syndicated. 5. Payment Processors 5.1 Payment Processors’ Use of Payment Rails The provision of payment services is regulated under the PSA and the PIA, neither of which specifies the payment rails to be used when providing payment ser - vices. Instead, they stipulate the conditions that need to be fulfilled in the provision of payment services. Therefore, payment processors are free to create and implement new payment rails on the condition that they comply with the PSA and PIA. However, in order to engage in the practice of payment services, a pay -
276 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook