Author: Fintechnews Baltic

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…

Danske Bank A/S, DNB Bank ASA, Nordea Bank Abp, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (publ), Svenska Handelsbanken AB (publ) and Swedbank AB (publ) are moving forward and have established a joint venture company to develop a platform for handling KYC (Know Your Customer) data. The European Commission has given its approval in accordance with the EU merger control rules. The joint venture company is preparing for its first commercial launch in 2020. The company is autonomous and will initially offer KYC services to the market concerning large and medium-sized companies based in the Nordic region. “The collaboration between all banks has…

Money 20/20 Europe, a global event that celebrates the intersection between money and technology, concluded its 2019 run in Europe last month, held in Amsterdam, Netherlands. One of the highlights there was a presentation by Finance Estonia, a financial sector cluster organisation merging 100 private and public companies. Estonia has been deemed as one of the most interesting areas to observe the marriage between government and technology, and fintech naturally falls into that equation. Estonia after all, is seen as something of a startup paradise. Thanks to Estonia’s friendly approach towards startups, there were 413 startups in Estonia in 2017, which is deemed…

LBChain is the world’s first blockchain-based sandbox developed by a financial market regulator, the Bank of Lithuania. The platform was developed through a pre-commercial procurement and is now opening up to international start-ups as well as financial and FinTech companies to test their solutions on the LBChain. The project combines the creation of innovative blockchain-based solutions with supporting their application in the financial sector as well as improving the quality of regulatory requirements and attracting foreign direct investment. To create the LBChain platform, the Bank of Lithuania invoked last year service providers selected through a pre-commercial procurement. The LBChain project is divided…

UAB Workpower has become the first company allowed by the Board of the Bank of Lithuania to enter the Bank of Lithuania’s regulatory sandbox and test a peer-to-peer insurance platform. “We believe that peer-to-peer insurance services could become a cutting-edge way to protect consumers’ interests related to their owned or managed assets. Testing this innovation in a live environment will help us to assess consumer risks associated with such activities and make decisions on the existing regulation or the need for a legal framework,” said Marius Jurgilas, Member of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania. The peer-to-peer (P2P) insurance…

The Nordic and Baltic region is poised to become a fintech powerhouse, but challenges related to access to capital, achieving scale and reach, and regulation must be addressed, found a new survey. Launched during Money20/20 in Amsterdam earlier this week, the report provides a review of the current position and future trends in Nordic and Baltic fintech based results of an industry-wide survey and extensive interviews with industry stakeholders including banks, fintechs, regulators, accelerators and innovators. The survey found that 68% of respondents believe that the region is home to some great ideas and gaining in confidence, 14% up from…

Bank of Lithuania issued three new electronic money institution licences. The first electronic money institution licence was granted to UAB Verse Payments Lithuania, a subsidiary of the US company Verse Technologies, Inc. The company plans to carry out activities in Lithuania and other EU Member States and offer its customers a variety of digital financial services. The second electronic money institution licence was issued to Wittix UAB, which plans to offer Lithuanian consumers a new mobile payments app and an e-wallet, allowing them to make payments with their smartphones. The only beneficial owner of the company is an Israeli citizen.…

The Estonian government has passed a bill that tightens the regulation on granting virtual currency activity licenses to providers active in the sale and purchase of virtual currencies as well as those who provide virtual currency wallet services, this is according to a press statement from the Ministry of Finance Estonia’s minister of finance Martin Helme says the move represents a significant step forward in preventing money laundering, the financing of terrorism, and other criminal activities in connection with cryptocurrencies. “We have learning our lesson from the banking sector the hard way, and we must now deal with new international…

Evarvest, a Lithuania-based startup established with a goal of uniting the world’s stock exchanges and making them more widely accessible, reveals plans to launch a unique trading solution addressed to the next generation of investors. The soon-to-be-released app will provide users with an easy to use, transparent and low-cost way to access stocks, bonds and ETFs in over 30 stocks markets around the world. Evarvest has already confirmed commission-free access to the US stock market which is the largest in the world. The solution developed by Evarvest doesn’t look like traditional trading apps. With its functional and user-friendly interface, easy…

Despite being a relatively small market compared to its other European counterparts, the Baltic region is quickly surging ahead in the global fintech race. It was once hailed by the World Economic Forum as one of the most innovative region within the European Union. While it is most famous for giving birth to big names like Skype and the now London-based Transferwise, it is also home to a sizeable number of cutting edge fintech startups. Lithuania alone is home to over 170 fintech startups, while Estonia is home to over 80 fintech startups, whereas Latvia’s fintech industry is said to…

The Nordic countries or the Nordics, a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic that includes Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. The region is increasingly becoming a fintech powerhouse, producing some unicorns and iconic names. Here are the top 10 fintech companies coming out from the region. Klarna (Sweden) Klarna was founded in 2005 in Stockholm with the aim of making it easier for people to shop online. The company has since evolved into one of Europe’s largest banks and is providing payment solutions for 60 million consumers across 130,000 merchants in 14 countries. Klarna…

The Nordic Five Tech alliance of leading technical universities announce the creation of the Nordic Artificial Intelligence Network. The Nordic AI Network will make the region a global hub in AI research, education and innovation. ​With global interest in the many opportunities of artificial intelligence (AI), the network will bring together, and harness, leading expertise in the field with the aim of taking the landmark step to make the region a global hub in AI research, education and innovation. The Nordic AI Network will begin activities already in 2019 with selected events. In coming years, it will share educational resources,…

Sonect, a location-based P2P matchmaking platform that connects those who want to withdraw cash with those who want to deposit it, has obtained its Electronic Money Institution licence from the Bank of Lithuania, which enables the company to operate in all EEA countries. EEA countries consists of the 28 member countries of the European Union (EU) combined with Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. This marks a starting point for pan-European expansion for the Swiss fintech.  It took a relatively short 18 months for Sonect to curate the largest single cash withdrawal network in its Switzerland home town. In fact, we even…

Nordic Capital Fund announced the acquisition of Signicat, a high-growth provider of digital identity and signature solutions. Nordic Capital will, in close partnership with the company’s management and existing shareholder Viking Venture, accelerate Signicat’s international expansion and strengthen the company’s market-leading position and unique product offering. Founded in Trondheim, Norway in 2007, Signicat leads innovation in verified digital identity solutions, reducing risk while providing a smart and intuitive user experience. Its solutions enable companies and institutions, both in regulated and non-regulated industries, to offer efficient and user-friendly advanced online authentication, identification verification and electronic signature solutions. Signicat has more than…

Lithuania highly visible on the global Fintech innovation map also becomes a relevant risk management competence centre. By the initiative of Minister of Finance Vilius Šapoka, nine national institutions joined forces for a common goal – to promptly anticipate Fintech potential risks and effectively manage them. On Monday these intentions were endorsed by signing the inter-institutional memorandum. The Memorandum on Cooperation and Exchange of Information in Risk Management in Financial Innovation and Financial Technology was signed by Minister of Finance Vilius Šapoka, Minister of the Interior Eimutis Misiūnas, Chairman of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania Vitas Vasiliauskas, Director…

Marius Jurgilas, Member of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania, met with experts from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, sharing Lithuania’s experience in creating a fintech-conducive regulatory environment, which falls in line with international best practices. Given rapid advances in financial technology that are transforming the economic and financial landscape, in October 2018 the IMF and the World Bank put forward the Bali Fintech Agenda. The agenda advances key considerations with regard to fintech and its regulation, distilling them into 12 elements (including recommendations on stimulating growth of the sector and preventing the associated risks)…

In the ever-growing European alternative finance market, Lithuania – together with other Baltic countries – shows peculiarly favourable results among the crowdlending operators Common trends in the Baltic region highlight alternative lending as a serious challenge for traditional banks and credit unions. Last year, in all of the Baltic states, alternative lending played a more significant role than ever. During the first three quarters of 2018 (January-September), 1,082 billion euro were issued through alternative lending channels. This accounted for 8.27% of the total lending activities within the region as banks and credit unions issued approximately 12 billion euro, as stated…

The Lithuanian subsidiary of London-based cross-border payments facilitator Earthport  – Earthport Payment Services UAB – has been granted a Payment Institution license by the Bank of Lithuania. The license allows Earthport to continue providing payment services across the European Union. Having been granted the PI license by the Bank of Lithuania, Earthport can also benefit from having direct access to the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) via the Bank’s proprietary CENTROlink payment system. Rosie Faulkner, General Manager at Earthport Lithuania stated “We are really excited to grow in Lithuania; we chose it because it provides a great fit for Earthport…

With one of the highest rates of startups per capita in Europe, Estonia is considered by many as a startup paradise, a status it earned thanks to the numerous governmental initiatives focusing on supporting technology and small businesses. Image Credit: Skype’s Facebook Page The country’s startup success started in 2003 with Skype, which was built and developed in Estonia. The success of Skype had an enormous impact on the local startup ecosystem as it represented the first time that a truly global multinational startup was being created and nurtured from this relatively small country. Fast forward 16 years and Estonia…

The Lithuanian capital Vilnius is emerging as the world’s biggest tech sandbox. At an important crossroads of Europe, Vilnius has always been a cosmopolitan city with important commerce that attracted a mix of cultures, languages and religions. Today, the city is emerging as a hub for technology startups that has seen it already rise to become one of Europe’s most important Fintech locations. One of the keys to its success has been the creation of sandbox environments that encourage businesses to test their products under controlled settings and with help of regulators. Vilnius now has five official sandboxes where this…