Sweden’s Nordea Bank, the largest bank in the Nordic region, is launching a platform for crowdfunding where individuals can participate in the financing of unlisted companies through purchasing shares in such companies. The bank appears to be taking up the fight against startups in the fintech business.

The platform is being announced today in Finland, where the Finnish Crowdfunding Act is scheduled to come into force in July 2016. According to the Bank’s Twitter account, the platform will be announced in Sweden tomorrow in connection with the quarterly report.

Crowdfunding and crowdlending have become popular in the Nordic region. In Sweden, examples are Fundedbyme , Toborrow , Pepins , Tessin and Kameo, all of which have entered the business from slightly different different angles. These players have been able to act undisturbed by major banks for more than five years , but now Nordea becomes the first traditional bank to embark in the crowdfunding area .

Nordea on Twitter

Photo: Outi Järvinen/Kl/Arkisto