Advanzia Bank S.A. was established in Luxembourg in 2005 subject to CSSF supervision, specializing in euro savings accounts and no-fee credit cards. The bank was established as a result of the former Founding Management of Bankia Bank seeking to establish an EU-based bank. This was accomplished with the previously largest shareholder of Bankia Bank, Kistefos, becoming the largest shareholder of Advanzia Bank. Fyksen, Grenth, and Holtedahl has together with Dr. Thomas Schlieper set up the bank, which has quickly become a significant issuer of international credit cards in mainland Europe without a presence in the highly competitive UK card market. Europe's premier card issuer is Barclaycard of the UK.

Under the umbrella of European cross border banking regulations, Advanzia caters primarily to Luxembourgish and German clients.

Within its first year of operations, the bank had become the largest Luxembourgish issuer of credit cards with its "Gebührenfrei MasterCard Gold".

[edit] Sources

• http://www.advanzia.lu
• http://www.cssf.lu/index.php?id=8&L=1
• http://www.focus.de/finanzen/karten/kreditkarten-vergleich
• http://www.test.de/presse/pressemitteilungen/-Tages-und-Festgeld/1576820/1576820/

This bank and insurance-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e