A major foreign fintech company is set to launch operations in Lithuania, according to Simonas Krėpšta, a board member of the Bank of Lithuania.
“In a few weeks, we will have more news about the financial technology giants coming to Lithuania,”
Krėpšta said on March 28 at the launch of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Lithuanian Economic Outlook event in Vilnius.
Vytautė Šmaižytė-Kuliešienė, a spokeswoman for the Bank of Lithuania, later clarified that the announcement pertains to just one fintech company.
The Centre of Registers has listed the name of the company as Ebury Partners Lithuania, with operations scheduled to begin before the end of September this year.
Ebury, a fintech company based in the United Kingdom and owned by Spanish bank Santander, revealed in January that it had reached an agreement to acquire ArcaPay, a competitor in Lithuania.
Ebury stated at the time that the deal was still subject to confirmation, with the aim of expanding into new markets across the Baltics and Scandinavia, and further strengthening its position in the global payments market.
The company has previously expanded into South Africa, New Zealand, Chile, and Mexico.
Krėpšta noted that the fintech sector in Lithuania is “experiencing a golden age.”
He explained that companies based in Lithuania serve approximately 30 million clients across Europe.
“For example, Revolut, one of the world’s largest digital banks, has chosen Lithuania as its base,”
Krėpšta added.
“The growth is quite strong. We can see that fintech and information technology are making a significant contribution to GDP growth,”
he said.
At the start of the year, there were around 270 companies in the sector, including 120 payment institutions licensed and supervised by the Bank of Lithuania.
Forty-three percent of these companies are foreign-owned.
According to the Fintech Hub LT association, the sector employs around 7,400 people, with an average salary of €3,900 per month before tax.
Krėpšta told BNS that Lithuania’s strong reputation and the maturity of its market make the country an attractive destination for fintech companies, with a growing number of e-payment, crowdfunding, and digital investment services firms emerging.
Featured image credit: edited from freepik
