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MuniFin helps Finnish municipalities in digitalisation

Municipality Finance Plc, or MuniFin, provides municipalities in Finland with digital services that can speed up and automate the processes of public financing. Now, the financing management tool provided by MuniFin will be extended to support investment activities.

Municipal assets are seldom limited to listed securities, but often include physical assets such as land and real estate. With the expansion of the platform, municipalities can manage a wide range of assets in one system.

– It is important to follow the returns on investments to be able to plan the future investments. Additionally, many municipalities have outsourced their investments to asset managers, whose performance and cost levels may not be comparable, says Hannes Helenius, Chairman of the Board of FA Solutions.

MuniFin develops its services on a customer-oriented basis.

– This is a highly desirable addition to MuniFin’s services. Monitoring and reporting the overall picture of our financial position is easier when the liabilities and assets are manageable in one system. In addition, we can make the city’s financial management more transparent, which is particularly important for a public organisation, adds Kari Pentti, Financial Manager at City of Turku.

The expansion is implemented in cooperation with FA Solutions, a Nordic financial technology firm.

– We want to provide services in an ecosystem with our partners. Operations are efficient when each member of the network focuses on their core competencies, comments Jukka Leppänen, Manager, lending in MuniFin.

In Sweden, Kommuninvest has been providing similar services to Swedish municipalities and provinces since 2016.

Further information:

Jukka Leppänen, Municipality Finance Plc
Manager, lending
jukka.leppanen@munifin.fi
+358 50 5910 934

Hannes Helenius, FA Solutions
Partner, Chairman of the Board
hannes.helenius@fasolutions.com
+358 20 7118 514

MuniFin

KBN joins Nordic agency cooperation

The Nordic local government funding agencies – set up to provide low cost and stable funding for public investments in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden – are amongst Europe’s most creditworthy and important issuers of SSA debt. Collectively, Kommunalbanken (Norway), KommuneKredit (Denmark), Kommuninvest (Sweden) and Municipality Finance (Finland), issue $35-40 billion annually in bonds, notes, and commercial paper.

While issuing separately in the capital markets, the institutions have strong relationships and cooperate closely within certain areas to benchmark the organisations’ practices, enhance knowledge sharing and sourcing, among others.

– Given the similarity between the institutions, it makes a lot of sense to cooperate. It enables us to achieve further economies of scale and knowledge, which is really fundamental to all of us, says Tomas Werngren, Kommuninvest’s president.

A formal cooperation between Kommunekredit, Kommuninvest and Municipality Finance has been in place since 2011. Kommunalbanken (KBN) now joins this group.

– We look forward to joining the Nordic cooperation. Our organisations are set up with the same purposes, we have strong cultural ties and share many of the same values. To be able to exchange information on best practice, to discuss common challenges and opportunities will strengthen our knowledge base for the benefit of our customers and owners, says Kristine Falkgård, President and CEO of Kommunalbanken.

Ms. Falkgård says meeting the Nordic colleagues is a great inspiration.

– We all perform important public tasks in our economies and recognize the importance of having a strong Nordic voice in many contexts. This collaboration will help us deliver on our mandates; to secure cost efficient finance for local government investments in our respective countries.

The agencies’ cooperation typically deals with a handful of prioritised strategic projects at a time. Currently, the focus projects include collateral management, digital services, new regulations (EMIR), credit analysis and valuations.

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