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An internal source confirmed to ElectricNews.Net that the vast majority of the company's employees will lose their jobs immediately with a handful kept on to wind the business down. All staff will receive one month's pay and statutory redundancy.
According to the source, Factor-e has not recovered from the collapse of First-e in September 2001. First-e, which was Enba's Internet banking operation, closed with the loss of 245 jobs after it failed to attract a sufficient number of customers.
According to Factor-e's Web site, its customers were First-e DE, First-e UK and Banque d'Escompte (which provided on-line retail banking services under the First-e trademark) and it provided them with banking, banking operations and customer service management solutions.
Despite this blow, the source said that Factor-e, which came out of Enba and was established in 1998, was determined to remain in business. "Management at the company felt that they could still sell the technology to other financial institutions because it wasn't the technology that had caused First-e to fail," the source said.
However, it appears a number of factors conspired against Factor-e. It found that in the downturn very few companies were prepared to invest in any kind of technology and its sales disappeared. It also found that it was unlikely to raise funds without the promise of these future sales and it was decided to close the business before the situation deteriorated even further. A spokesperson for Factor-e was unavailable for comment at the time of publication.
The closure of Factor-e spells the end of the operating businesses of Enba, which was a Dublin-based specialist holding company for Internet financial services ventures. Enba is likely to remain as an entity for some time, but it is not thought that it has any immediate plans for further activity.
Enba and its operating businesses raised EUR0.5 billion in private equity capital from its foundation in 1998. Its founders were highly experienced in the financial sector, with its chief executive officer Gerard Huber having founded Germany's first execution-only broker Direkt Anlage Bank.
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