Simont Braun successfully assisted AION in building an entirely digital and mobile bank, making it the first of its kind next generation Challenger Bank in Belgium. AION has officially launched its services on 3 March 2020.
AION is the former Banca Monte Pasci Belgio and was purchased by the American fund Warburg Pincus in 2018 in order to transform it into a fully digital financial services provider. AION offers an unrivalled broad spectrum of financial products and services, and beyond banking services, benefitting from an impressive technology and IT support.
“Simont Braun’s team has been involved for over a year in developing the new digital products and services in close and successful collaboration with AION’s team,” comments Philippe De Prez, Partner at Simont Braun in Digital Finance and Financial services. “We had the pleasure to collaborate with a very motivated and talented group of people at AION, all working towards an ambitious goal. It has been an intense ride during which we often explored innovative solutions which were so far not available on the Belgian market. This is a space where our team is at its very best. We would like to sincerely thank our clients for this great opportunity to both assist and learn.”
Simont Braun’s Digital Finance Team advised AION on the compliance of their services and products with the applicable regulation, was involved in numerous contract drafting, screen-by-screen compliance analysis and negotiations with the regulator.
The Simont Braun team was led by partner Philippe De Prez, with the assistance of partners Catherine Houssa and Axel Maeterlinck, counsel Thomas Derval, and associates Sander Van Loock, Charlotte De Thaye, Amine Chafik and David-Alexandre Sauvage.