Author: Fintechnews Baltic

Analysis of industry data by Nucoro reveals that 7% of people in work in Sweden earn over $90,000 a year or 906,000 Swedish Krona (SEK). It’s analysis also reveals a growing pool of wealthy people in Sweden, many of whom Nucoro believes are increasingly open to using digital wealth management services. There were around 200,500 millionaires in Sweden in 2018, and this is set to rise to 245,000 (an increase of 22%) by 2023. In terms of those Swedes worth $30 million or more, there were around 3,820 with this level of wealth in 2018, and this is expected to…

The Riksbank is conducting a pilot project with Accenture aimed at developing a proposal for a technical solution for an e-krona. The objective is to create, in an isolated test environment, a digital krona that is simple and user-friendly. The technical solution will be based on Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), often referred to as block-chain technology. The main aim of the pilot is for the Riksbank to increase its knowledge of central bank-issued digital krona. The Riksbank is conducting a pilot project with Accenture to develop a technical solution for an e-krona that can work as a complement to cash.…

2019 was a key year for Lithuania’s fintech sector, with the number of companies in the sector rising to more than 200 and the country being recognized as one of the most dynamic fintech hubs globally, according to a new report by Invest Lithuania, the Lithuanian investment promotion agency. Lithuania is now home to 210 fintech companies, a 24% increase compared with the previous year, and has issued 102 licenses going towards electronic money institutions (EMIs), payment institutions, and so-called special purpose banks. In 2019, the number of people employed by companies in the sector rose 30% to 3,400. The…

Fintech is a rapidly emerging area of business in Estonia with now 78 companies, among which 18 in the blockchain, crypto space, according to the first ever draft of the Estonia Fintech Startup Map. Estonia has a burgeoning blockchain industry and its history dates back to 2008 when the country began utilizing the technology. Since then, the sector has rapidly grown and given birth to the likes of Guardtime, the world’s largest blockchain company, and Funderbeam, a global investing and trading platform utilizing blockchain. Today, Guardtime’s KSI Blockchain is utilized by clients including Verizon, the US and Thai governments,…

Like other Baltic nations, Latvia has witnessed the steady growth of a fintech scene. Today, the country is home to 50 fintech startups and has rapidly expanding blockchain and alternative lending segments, according to the Fintech Latvia Startup Map 2020. In Latvia, there are currently seven fintech companies operating in the crypto/blockchain space. These include Bitfury, a leading security and infrastructure provider, Axioma, a developer of blockchain solutions, Blockvis, a blockchain consulting and development agency, Netcore, a web development company, and Velvet, a blockchain-powered deal platform. In the peer-to-peer (P2P) lending and alternative finance space, notable Latvian startups include P2P…

The fintech landscape in the Nordic and Baltic regions continues to be one of the most successful at producing unicorns with recent examples that include TransferWise, from Estonia, and Klarna Bank, from Sweden. As we head into 2020, we look today at some of this year’s top fintech events and conferences to help you keep up with the region’s rapidly changing fintech landscape. sTARTUp Day 2020 January 29 – 31, 2020 Tartu, Estonia sTARTUp Day is the biggest festival in the Baltics, bringing together startups, traditional entrepreneurs, investors, innovators, and students. The aim of the event is to connect…

The Riksbank has implemented a public procurement of a technology supplier to the e-krona pilot project and intends to sign an agreement with consulting company Accenture. The primary objective of the e-krona pilot project is to broaden the bank’s understanding of the technological possibilities for the e-krona. The assignment entails producing a solution as to how an e-krona could function in a test environment. During the first year of the e-krona pilot project, a technical platform will be developed with a user interface that enables, for instance, payment with the e-krona from a mobile phone, a card and a watch.…

Following the assessment and proposal of the Bank of Lithuania, the European Central Bank (ECB) granted PayRay, UAB a banking licence, authorising it to receive deposits and other repayable funds. The company is currently providing factoring services and microcredits to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Having engaged in banking activities, the company intends to continue providing loans to SMEs as well as expanding its portfolio of services (e.g. online deposit collection) and geographical coverage. PayRay, UAB belongs to a holding company registered in Luxembourg. The company started its activities in Lithuania in June 2018 as a private limited liability company…

Ten years ago we probably haven’t even thought of the possibility to order a bank card online and that there will be no longer need for us to go to the bank unit where, in the end, the number of cash operations will decrease significantly. Banks are undergoing transformation, and their digitisation is faster than ever before. And it is bringing changes to us all. It is no coincidence that this is also one of the hot topics of this year’s Fintech Inn, the largest financial technology conference in the Nordic countries and the Baltic States. Digitalisation is inevitability, not…

Iceland’s financial services industry has changed rapidly over the past couple of years with fintech solutions at the forefront of these changes. Innovative fintech solutions are provided by the three largest commercial banks in the country, namely Landsbankinn, Íslandsbanki, and Arion Bank, but also by a growing list of independent businesses and startups which are leveraging cutting-edge technologies including artificial intelligence and blockchain to reinvent the sector. The following are 9 fintech startups in Iceland to keep a close eye on. Meniga Founded in 2009, Meniga provides white-label digital banking solutions. Its award-winning products enable the world’s largest financial…

Currently, Danske Bank employs 3,725 employees and the average salary is 2,500 euros. The original interview was published in 15min.lt by Ernetas Naprys. Danske Bank has created more jobs than the two major banks operating in the country taken together. According to the state social insurance fund (Sodra), it is the fifth largest employer in Lithuania paying the highest wages. Giedrius Dzekunskas, manager of Danske Bank IT Centre in Lithuania, remembers that the original intention was to hire 350 employees. “But jobs go to where they are done,” he said. When you enter through the office door, you find yourself in a…

Financial Times’ fDi Intelligence division announced the list of 30 cities that have attracted the most greenfield Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) projects of tech startups per capita during the years 2016-2018. Vilnius was ranked as the leading city and outranked cities like Singapore, Tel Aviv, Berlin and London, which came in second. The Tech Start-up FDI Attraction Index 2019 measures at the city level the number of greenfield FDI projects made in the software and IT services sector per 100,000 inhabitants. Although London attracted the largest overall number of projects, it scored only 0.875 on a per-capita basis while Vilnius firmly came forward with 1.006.…

Over the past years, Finland’s fintech industry has been growing rapidly. Today, the nation is home to roughly 160 fintech companies covering a wide range of areas including payments, cryptocurrencies, blockchain, insurance, security and compliance, APIs and platforms, data and analytics, investing, wealth management, and more, according to data from Helsinki Fintech. Startup100, a platform that tracks startup companies’ online marketing activities and performance, has released the latest edition of its top 100 Finnish startups list, among which, nine fintech, insurtech and proptech startups. The following companies are the nine fintech, insurtech and proptech startups that made the list and…

Vilnius Factoring Company, a private lending company in Lithuania, has signed a cooperation agreement with the European Investment Fund (EIF) to issue microloans of up to €25,000. Micro-enterprises and farmers in Lithuania can now benefit from non-banking business funding opportunities under the EU Programme for Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI). The company is issuing microloans up to a total of €10 million with a guarantee from the EIF. The agreement is backed by the Juncker Plan’s European Fund for Strategic Investments, which allows the European Investment Bank Group to invest in higher-risk operations. The aim of the EaSI programme is…

One year in the market, and the real estate investment start-up Profitus is already counting its achievements and envisaging future challenges. The crowdfunding platform Profitus just raised over €5,315,000 and funded 28 real estate projects. The founder and head of Profitus, Viktorija Vanagė, is glad that one year was enough to achieve great results and earn the trust of investors and real estate developers. ‘Trust and experience are crucial in the financial sector, so our team is very happy that we managed to achieve great results and become the youngest and one of the leading participants in this market. There…

The Estonian government approved the e-Residency 2.0 action plan at a Cabinet meeting last Thursday, with the objective of making the e-Residency program more secure, more beneficial for Estonian entrepreneurs, and more convenient for the e-residency community. Prime Minister Jüri Ratas said that the results of this year’s e-Residency program have proven that the program itself is sustainable and successful in involving entrepreneurs from all over the world. “Although we are grateful for the support of the e-residency community, there is still a lot to do to make this program even more convenient and beneficial for them,” Ratas said. “The…

Nets, a European PayTech company and Mastercard  announced that Mastercard has entered into agreement to acquire Nets’ account-to-account based services including clearing and instant payment services, and e-billing solutions for €2.85 billion. The transaction is fully aligned with Nets’ European strategy to focus on its strong and scalable businesses within merchant services (Merchant Services) and processing (Financial & Network Services). Bo Nilsson, Group CEO of Nets, said: “Over the past five years, Nets has built a strong account-to-account payments platform with a global growth opportunity. However, to fully unlock its international growth potential beyond Nets’ existing geographical footprint requires the…

The Bank of Lithuania has signed a contract for programming the world’s first digital collector coin which, together with its physical version, is expected to be issued at the beginning of 2020. “We are moving from an idea to its implementation: we have clear technological solutions, a vision of what its physical coin will look like and we already know who will be responsible for its creation. Aiming to create such a unique innovation in numismatics, we have to finish all the work in a timely manner, while pursuing the highest standards,” said Egidijus Paleckis, manager of the Digital Collector…

Lithuania is following on the steps of its Baltic neighbor Estonia and introduced an e-residency program for foreigners. According to a report by LRT, the Lithuanian government has passed a legal amendment allowing foreign nationals to obtain the status of e-resident starting January 2021. E-residents will receive a digital identity identification that will give them online access to a range of administrative, public, and commercial services. These will be able to set up companies, open bank accounts and declare taxes online. According to Eimutis Misiunas, Lithuania’s interior minister, the application procedure for the e-resident status, handled by the country’s migration…

In recent years, the Danish fintech sector has experienced significant growth, facilitated by a highly educated and digitally literate population, the support of specific government policies aimed at promoting financial innovation, and the development of Copenhagen as an international fintech hub. The Danish ecosystem has evolved massively over the last three years and the entrepreneurs that started their ventures within this timeframe are now seizing global markets or building solutions with large financial corporations. Last year, Denmark welcomed its first fintech unicorn when Tradeshift, a cloud-based business network and platform for supply chain payments, closed a 250 million Danish kroner…