Separation of Product Comparison, Brokerage and Insurance Services

Any rating company who does not limit itselve to the comparison of financial services, but also insures the customer against risks, must obtain approval for this. There is no free market for financial services in Germany.

The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority in Germany, Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht (BaFin), ordered the CHECK24 comparison portal CHECK24 Vergleichsportal Finanzen GmbH, Munich, to discontinue its insurance business by decision of August 5, 2020. “The CHECK24 Vergleichsportal Finanzen GmbH promised credit customers, which it has referred to various credit institutions via its internet platform, that they would pay up to six loan installments in the event of unemployment, but doing this without the required permission from BaFin.”

The CHECK24 Vergleichsportal Finanzen GmbH is just one of the many subsidiaries of just one of the approximately 70 companies that in turn belong wholly or mostly to Check24 GmbH. The main shareholders of Check24 GmbH are Eckhard Juls and Heinrich Blase (both born in 1967). CHECK24 Vergleichsportal Finanzen GmbH is in turn mother company to Kredite 24 Service GmbH.

The company was entered in the commercial register in 2013 as ProCheck24 GmbH with the object of the company to provide insurance and financial services of all kinds (the latter only if they do not require approval) and evidence of the possibility of concluding contracts for insurance and financial services of all kinds, including the development and establishment of new sales channels therefore as well as the provision of IT services for the electronic processing of contracts in trade and financial advice. “Activities requiring approval are not part of the company”, it said at the time in the commercial register.

The CHECK24 comparison portal Finanz GmbH is about comparing and brokering financial services of all kinds and operating a media, advertising and marketing agency. The provision of financial services within the meaning of Section 1 (1a) KWG should not be the object of the company, nor should investment brokering within the meaning of Section 1 (1a) lit. a KWG.

Kredite24 Privat is an online loan for free use that is granted for long periods. The personal loan is available exclusively via the CHECK24 loan comparison. For the loan with free use, Kredite24 relies on the cooperation with the DSL Bank. The Bonn-based credit institute is certified by TÜV Süd and belongs to Deutsche Postbank AG. The Kredite24 Service GmbH is a wholly owned subsidiary of the CHECK24 comparison portal Finanz GmbH, which operates the loan comparison of the internet portal.