Your bank covers part of the next investment, and your customers, suppliers or local supporters would fund the rest. In 2026, Germany made that second part much easier: you can now offer your own bond to private investors without a bank or a licensed partner in between.

A self-issuance (Eigenemission), also called a direct placement, means your company sells its own securities, such as a bond, directly to investors (our explainer on what a self-issuance is covers the basics). This article looks only at the German law change: what the old rules required, what is allowed now, and what it means for your costs and your investors.

What changed for self-issuance in Germany in 2026?

Two dates matter, both set by the Location Promotion Act (Standortfördergesetz): 10 February 2026 for the sales rules and 5 June 2026 for the prospectus limit. The rules that fell away on 10 February were German additions, not EU law. The WIB itself is a short, standardised summary of your company, the security, its risks and its costs, and it replaces the much longer prospectus.

Why did German companies need a licensed partner before 2026?

A licensed partner had to make the offer. Since 2018, German law required public securities offers to private investors between €1 million and €8 million, made with a WIB, to be sold through investment advice or brokerage by a licensed securities firm. A company without a licence had two options: hire such a firm to run the offer, or become a tied agent of a licensed firm. That firm then provides the liability umbrella and charges for it. Offers with a full prospectus were not covered by this rule, but a prospectus is a much longer and more expensive document.

What can your company do now that it couldn't before?

You can make the offer yourself. Since 10 February 2026, your company may offer its own securities to private investors directly: on your website, in your customer newsletter, at events, through a sign-up page under your brand. A licensed sales partner is now a choice, not a requirement. Any advertising for the offer must point to the WIB. If you pay someone to advise on or broker the offer for you, that person still needs a licence.

You can raise more without a prospectus. Since 5 June 2026, up to €12 million in 12 months needs only the WIB. Before, the limit was €8 million per type of security. Above the limit, a full prospectus is still required; our prospectus guide explains when.

The WIB process itself has not changed: BaFin must permit its publication before the offer starts, and the review clock restarts if the submission is incomplete. BaFin checks that the WIB is complete and in the required form, not whether its content is correct.

How does the change make investing easier for private investors?

The caps are gone. Under the old rules, a non-professional investor could put €1,000 into a WIB offer, or, with a self-declaration, up to €10,000 (with at least €100,000 in free assets) or twice their monthly net income, never more than €25,000. The self-declaration is gone as well.

A customer who has bought from you for twenty years and wants to invest €100,000 can now do so. And fewer investors can carry the same amount: at an average of €1,000 per investor, a €2 million raise needs 2,000 investors; at €10,000, it needs 200.

Investor protection did not disappear. Every investor still receives the WIB before investing, with a mandatory risk warning on the first page.

What does a self-issuance with a WIB cost now?

Expect four cost blocks: legal work for the bond terms and the WIB, usually the largest; the BaFin fee of €5,923; identity checks and payments, charged per investor or transaction; and, for a digital bond, the registrar who keeps the register. What falls away is the placement fee. For reference, crowdinvesting platforms typically charged issuers 5 to 10% of the money raised, sometimes plus ongoing fees (Rödl & Partner, 2019; an older figure, so treat it as indicative). For a sense of the total: in one bond of roughly €2 million issued on ONINO's software, around 1,000 retail and professional investors subscribed, and total costs came to about 1 to 3% of the amount, split roughly evenly between technology, legal work and distribution.

A made-up example shows the difference. A window manufacturer needs €2 million on top of its bank loan for a new production line. Before 2026, a 5 to 10% placement fee would have cost €100,000 to €200,000, and a private customer could have invested €25,000 at most. Today that fee falls away, and the same customer can invest the full €100,000. Because most of these costs are fixed, the saving grows with the size of the raise. Our guide to issuing a bond without a bank compares the total cost of both routes.

Is self-issuance now a real alternative to a bank loan?

Yes, as a second source next to the bank, not a replacement. Banks are holding back: in Q2 2026, 40.5% of SMEs seeking credit reported that their banks were restrictive, a record since the KfW-ifo survey began in 2017. Only 27% of SMEs would even consider a bank loan for an investment, down from 66% in 2017, and those who rule it out most often name too much disclosure (30%) and too much collateral (28%)

A bond is still debt and has to be repaid. But you set the term, the interest rate and who your investors are, and you do not pledge collateral unless you choose to.

Self-issuance fits best for companies with a stable business, a clear use of funds and people who already trust them.

What stays the same after the law change?

• The responsibility is yours. Your company is liable for the WIB: if material information in it is wrong or misleading, or there is no WIB, investors can demand to reverse their purchase. The most common risks are outdated figures and marketing that promises more than the WIB says, so have a lawyer review the WIB and every investor-facing message before the offer starts.

• Securities only. Subordinated loans (Nachrangdarlehen) and other German investment products (Vermögensanlagen) still need a platform or intermediary, and the investor caps still apply there.

• Germany only. The WIB does not cover offers in other EU countries.

• Licensed functions stay licensed. Payment handling, custody and the register for a digital bond run through licensed partners.

What do you need to start a self-issuance now?

The building blocks are the same as before, minus the mandatory sales partner: bond terms, a WIB whose publication BaFin has permitted, identity checks and payments, custody or a register, and investor communication for the life of the bond. Our 5-step self-issuance guide walks through each step and the typical timeline.

Running these steps on one system saves time, because every handoff between providers is a place where weeks get lost. ONINO is a software provider: its white-label software lets you run sign-up and subscription under your own brand. Identity checks, payment handling and the register for digital bonds run through pre-integrated licensed partners, and the permissions sit with those partners, not with ONINO. You bring the project and the investors, and reuse the setup for every future raise.

Summary

Since 10 February 2026, your company can offer its own securities to private investors with a WIB without a licensed partner, and investors can put in as much as they want. Since 5 June 2026, up to €12 million needs only that three-page WIB. That makes self-issuance cheaper, easier to start and a real second option next to the bank.