Top banks are making a $40 million bet on a tech platform that aims to revolutionize a $5 trillion, antiquated loan market.
The who’s who of the banking world has teamed up to build a fintech that replaces the syndicated loan market’s spreadsheets, fax machines, and phone calls with a real-time and transparent new digital service.
A handful of top banks are ready to say goodbye to the inefficient and fragmented process of syndicated loan dealmaking, where settlement times can average more than 20 days.
Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, US Bancorp, and Wells Fargo just invested in and joined Versana, a digital data platform originally spearheaded by JPMorgan, Citi, Bank of America, and Credit Suisse last year.
The project is an example of how traditional financial firms can team up to focus their collective energy, skills, and experience on building themselves a better solution – and preventing an independent fintech from disrupting the process instead.
Versana centralizes corporate loan data, providing greater transparency and faster processing. Its new bank investors and clients mean Versana will now have more than 75% of US loan market deals on its platform.
“With the global capital markets in a fairly volatile state at the moment, now is the time to ensure that agent banks, lenders, fund administrators, and trustees all have the needed transparency and digital tools to manage and drive the syndicated loan market forward,” says founding CEO Cynthia Sachs.