Municipal loan platform komuno now available for all banks

Frankfurt am Main – The municipal loan platform komuno, a joint venture between Helaba Digital and Lucht Probst Associates (LPA), has also been available to all banks outside the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe since the beginning of the year. Using komuno, municipal investment loans and cash advances can be processed quickly, efficiently and easily. Since the launch of the platform in September 2018, numerous towns, municipalities and districts as well as savings banks and Landesbanks have already decided to use the platform. In addition to regular invitations to tender on komuno, the growing demand has also led to the first successful, legally binding transactions on the platform. In order to further consolidate this positive momentum, the platform was extended to all banks on 1 January 2019.

Now that the functionality of komuno has been successfully tested among users of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe, extending it to all banks is a logical step, as it meets the wish of users to be able to conduct tenders in an exclusively digital process using komuno in future. This means that all licensed banking institutions – private banks, cooperative institutions as well as development banks and other credit institutions – can now register to use the platform.

“We are convinced that extending the platform to institutions outside the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe will increase the added value of the platform for all its users and thus strengthen komuno’s position. Participating municipalities can now approach all institutions and partners relevant to them via the platform and use komuno as their primary tendering channel,” says Dr Gerhard Kebbel, head of Helaba’s Strategic Digitalisation Project.

Stefan Lucht, founder of LPA GmbH, adds: “The in-depth discussions that we have conducted with users and partners confirm that komuno’s functionality meets their requirements. In order to create further added value for participants, it is now time to capture the entire market. The use of redundant communication channels will hopefully soon be a thing of the past and our approach of successively digitising the municipal lending process remains a top priority.”

Developments in technology and content over the past few months have also responded to this requirement: the tendering and bidding process has been further improved and, on the basis of user feedback, additional practical functions have been added. At the same time, users maintain the control over their tenders and bids that they are accustomed to. Both participating municipalities and credit institutions have the option of actively deciding, on the basis of an individually defined list of participants, which organisation should have access to published invitations to tender as well as which regional towns, municipalities or districts, for example, should submit invitations to tender to the bank.

A major milestone in the development of komuno’s functions in 2019 will be the launch of an interface between komuno and OSPlus, the core banking system of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe. This will enable municipal loans to be processed directly in the IT system of the savings banks without any media discontinuity from mid-2019 onwards. The further development of the existing interface to “S-Kompass”, the leading municipal debt management system, as well as extensive modifications to continuously improve the user-friendliness of komuno will also be the focus of updates in the coming months.

LPA is a financial service provider with a particular focus on capital market activities, offering strategic advice, management and implementation services as well as a broad suite of software to optimise processes and regulatory compliance.

In addition to a global network of locations, the company, which was established in 1999, employs around 200 people at its head office in Frankfurt am Main. In co-operation with members of the S-Finanzgruppe, since 2013 LPA has also been responsible for the development of the municipal debt management system “S-Kompass”.

Helaba Digital GmbH & Co. KG is a holding company owned by Helaba Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen for start-up investments that focuses on innovative companies that are the driving forces behind the issue of digital transformation in the areas of financial services (Fintechs), regulation (Regtechs) and the real estate sector (Proptechs). This leads to investments that actively complement the Helaba Group’s business model and optimise the bank’s core processes