MCE Finance (“MCE”) is an Italian-based financial institution that originates cessione del quinto dello stipendio, or “CQS” loans, to Italian consumers. To obtain a CQS loan, the borrower, often a public employee or pensioner, pledges up to one fifth of their salary or pension (the meaning of “cessione del quinto dello stipendio”) for up to 10 years, and the pledged amount is paid by the borrower’s employer or pension plan directly to MCE. MCE obtains (at borrower’s expense) life and employment insurance on the loans to mitigate the risk of loss. MCE sells its CQS production to a number of Italian banks which accumulate the product.
“MCE Locam” was the result of the October 2018 merger between Locam Srl and Mediocredito Europeo, which developed out of the Ktesios platform which was founded in the early 1990s and acquired by Seer managed funds in 2016. In January 2022, the MCE business was separated from Locam Srl into a standalone licensed CQS entity, which merged with an established CQS lender, DNA Prestiti. The resulting entity, MCE Finance, is licensed by the Bank of Italy as a financial institution, and remains majority owned by Seer managed funds.
* Seer is a diversified, credit-focused investment firm that primarily invests in broadly distributed fixed income instruments. In limited circumstances, Seer has made direct investments in portfolio companies, which are detailed on our website. The individual portfolio companies described represent Seer’s current investments in such security types. These individual portfolio companies do not represent all of the securities purchased, sold, or recommended in Seer’s portfolios, just the portfolio company investments, and the reader should not assume that investments in the securities identified and discussed were or will be profitable.