Man tried to rob IuteCredit, Estonian-origin fintech company branch in Moldova, Orhei. However, the robber who threatened the customer adviser with a knife did not know that whole IuteCredit is operating as a cashless company.

The criminal had visited IuteCredit’s office in Orhei, Moldova, twice that day and behaved strangely, as his loan application was rejected. It was 5 p.m. when the young female customer advisor was the only one working in the office when the criminal returned and began demanding money with threatening the employee with a knife.

A customer adviser explained to the criminal that IuteCredit does not have any cash in its offices and showed him a panic button and security cameras, which are constantly recording activities in IuteCredit offices. Customer advisor managed to calm down the robber and convinced him to leave the office.

According to Tarmo Sild, CEO of IuteCredit Group, the last customer served in the office before the attempt of the robbery already noticed the criminal’s knife and had already called the police, while leaving the office. “Soon the police arrived and recognised the man from the video. Nobody was injured in the attempt of this robbery and nothing was stolen,” he added. “I highly appreciate our employee, who managed to stay calm in this critical situation.”

According to Sild, the peculiarity of an innovative and digitized business is the fact that there is no point in attacking these companies with such kind of medieval manners. “IuteCredit is a microcredit and fintech company focusing mostly on installment loans, but there are many other examples as well, such as Transferwise that offers currency exchange, Veriff that works on authentication or Cleveron that offers parcel robots – all these functions have already existed in the society before, but the way they are offered now has changed significantly. The time of robbing the mail coaches or carrying the face masks has just passed. Fake signature with nice calligraphy doesn’t get one too far,” he explained.

The city of Orhei is located about 50 kilometers north from Moldova’s capital Chisinau and has a population of about 21,000. IuteCredit opened its branch there last year on 24 of December.

IuteCredit is an Estonian-origin international microcredit and fintech company focusing mostly on installment loans, including car loans. The average loan period is 18 months. Today, IuteCredit has become a leading microcredit company in Europe with a balance sheet of 100 million euros and more than 200,000 active customers. Besides Moldova, IuteCredit also operates in North Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria, and Bosnia & Herzegovina.

The portfolio of business partners of IuteCredit includes for example state postal services, international teleoperators Orange, VodaFone, Deutsche Telekom, large electronics stores, etc.