Varengold Bank AG is a German bank founded in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

in 1995 that also has offices in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and h ...

Divisions

In the marketplace banking division, the bank supports online marketplaces that deal with the financing of companies and consumers (

peer-to-peer Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network. They are said to form a peer-to-peer ...

platforms). Varengold finances the growth of fintech companies and provides them with products requiring a

banking license A banking licence is a legal prerequisite for a financial institution that wants to carry on a banking business. Under the laws of most jurisdictions, a business is not permitted to carry words like a ''bank'', ''insurance'', ''national'' in th ...

(fronting services). In the transaction banking and commercial banking division, the bank provides foreign trade-oriented customers with basic products such as account relationships and international payment transactions. The bank also has a customer base for trade finance transactions (e.g., guaranties or

letters of credit A letter of credit (LC), also known as a documentary credit or bankers commercial credit, or letter of undertaking (LoU), is a payment mechanism used in international trade to provide an economic guarantee from a creditworthy bank to an exp ...

). Varengold Bank AG is registered with the

Federal Financial Supervisory Authority The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (german: Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht, Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht) better known by its abbreviation BaFin is the financial regulatory authority for Germany. It ...

(BaFin) under No. 109520 and is affiliated with the '' Entschädigungseinrichtung deutscher Banken'' (EdB). Varengold shares (stock symbol VG8) is listed on the Xetra of the

Frankfurt Stock Exchange The Frankfurt Stock Exchange (german: link=no, Börse Frankfurt, former German name – FWB) is the world's 12th largest stock exchange by market capitalization. It has operations from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm ( German time). Organisation Loca ...

History

Varengold was founded in 1995 by Yasin Sebastian Qureshi and Timur Coban as an asset management boutique. Since the company was founded, the focus of its business activities has initially been on derivatives

broker A broker is a person or firm who arranges transactions between a buyer and a seller for a commission when the deal is executed. A broker who also acts as a seller or as a buyer becomes a principal party to the deal. Neither role should be confu ...

age and services in the area of alternative investments. In 1998, Varengold was granted a credit institution license by the then Federal Banking Supervisory Office (''Bundesaufsichtsamt für das Kreditwesen''). In June 2013 Varengold was granted a license as a deposit-taking bank. Since 20 March 2007, the Varengold shares have been listed in the unofficial market of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in the Entry Standard market segment. With the discontinuation of the Entry Standard on 1 March 2017, Varengold moved to the Basic Board.

Criticism

The Jerusalem Post ''The Jerusalem Post'' is a broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, founded in 1932 during the British Mandate of Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''The Palestine Post''. In 1950, it changed its name to ''The Jerusalem Post''. In 2004, the paper ...

'' reported in October 2018 that Varengold was said to have been doing business with

Iran Air The National Airline of Iran ( fa, هواپیمايی ملی ایران, Havâpeymâyi-ye Melli-ye Irân), branded as Iran Air, is the flag carrier of Iran, which is headquartered at Mehrabad Airport in Tehran. As of 2018, it operates schedule ...

at that time despite

US sanctions The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. The Varengold investment subsidiary was involved in cum-ex transactions. As of 2018, possible claims in the high double-digit millions still burden the bank's balance sheets. The public prosecutor's office in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

is investigating the former responsible persons from Varengold due to a particularly serious case of

tax evasion Tax evasion is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to reduce the tax ...

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1995 establishments in Germany Banks established in 1995 Banks of Germany Brokerage firms Companies based in Hamburg Companies listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange