Author: Fintechnews Baltic

Factris, the Amsterdam-based provider of factoring services has merged its operations with Lithuanian Fintech company Debifo. Factris intends to scale its development team and operations in Lithuania to accelerate the development of its factoring platform and execute on its ambition to become the Pan- European leader of working capital solutions for SMEs. Factris provides working capital to SMEs throughout Europe by purchasing their unpaid invoices. Their state-of-the-art platform combines in-depth financial know-how with new technologies, enabling easy processing, strong risk mitigation, and automated credit management. Factris is backed by European venture capital firm Speedinvest and has strong financial partners allowing…

A Lithuanian electronic payment system “Paysera” makes one more step and firmly establishes in all Baltic states by starting operating in Estonia. A customer service center has been opened in Tallinn. It is planned that a sales department will commence work this spring. “Development abroad is one of our key strategic goals. We are fully operating in Latvia, so stepping into the Estonian market is our ultimate establishment in the Baltic region. In Estonia we are in-demand even without investing in advertising or active sales. The development model successfully adopted in Bulgaria has been a great incentive for us –…

Over the year, the number of Lithuanian-based FinTech companies and their employees grew by more than 40%. In addition, by number of licensed electronic money institutions, Lithuania was in the lead in continental Europe. The results of the FinTech sector in 2018 were presented by the representatives of the Bank of Lithuania, the Ministry of Finance, Invest Lithuania and Rise Vilnius at the event taking place today at Rise Vilnius, a FinTech co-working space. “With the ever-accelerating technological progress, we strive to strike a balance between speed and safety and to create a regulatory environment supportive to both business and…

The Board of the Bank of Lithuania has granted Google Payment Lithuania UAB an electronic money institution license authorizing to issue and redeem electronic money as well as provide payment services. “The end of this year reflects our efforts and experience of the past few years in actively developing a FinTech-conducive ecosystem in Lithuania. Our regulatory environment and the benefits it offers have been acknowledged by both start ups and world-class FinTech companies,” said Board Member Marius Jurgilas. Google Payment Lithuania UAB is part of Alphabet Inc. (Google’s parent company). Having secured an electronic money institution license, the company will…

If fintech licensing is a race, then Lithuania is definitely ahead of the pack. According to data gathered from regulatory bodies of different European countries, the relatively small Baltic country is second only to Britain when it comes to Electronic Money Institution (EMI) licenses and it isn’t that far behind when it comes to Payments Institution (PI) licenses. Data shows that Lithuania has a total of 39 full EMI licenses and 33 PI licenses. The eyes of the financial technology industry have been set on Lithuania for quite some time, and this attention has only intensified after Revolut was granted both…

Nordea is launching Instant Reporting, a new Open Banking solution that enables corporate customers to access their own accounts and integrate real-time data with their own systems and processes. It is the first offering from Nordea that moves beyond legal requirements in PSD2 and turns Open Banking into a commercially viable product. PSD2 (Payment Services Directive) is an EU directive that requires banks to open to third parties to offer their services to the bank’s customers. This is intended to increase competition in the banking sector and is often called Open Banking. Nordea has chosen to see this as an…

Revolut together with the Bank of Lithuania have announced that the challenger bank received a Specialised Bank License, which will allow offering and passporting an even wider range of solutions to customers in Europe. The move of getting a license in mainland Europe has been considered by many a hedge against Brexit. Having received both the specialised Bank license and Electronic Money Institution facilitated by the Bank of Lithuania, Revolut is now effectively safe from any decision regarding Britain leaving the EU. From 2019, Revolut will start accepting deposits and offering retail and business lending, making it an even bigger rival for traditional banks.…

Paytend Technology, a Chinese company developing and selling financial services software, has announced choosing Vilnius, Lithuania, for its European headquarters. The company plans to hire up to 50 highly qualified professionals in the fields of sales marketing, compliance, product development and customer support in the following 3 years. One of the main reasons why the company, which will operate in Lithuania via subsidiary Paytend Europe, chose Lithuania was the country’s favourable and flexible regulatory environment. “Obtaining an electronic money institution license from the Bank of Lithuania was a straightforward, transparent and efficient process,” Junqing Li, CEO of Paytend Europe, say.…

The Astana Financial Services Authority (“AFSA”) has established a cooperation with Bank of Lithuania. The Agreement provides a framework for co-operation, information sharing and referrals in fintech innovations area between the AFSA and Bank of Lithuania. Parties believe that through co-operation with each other, they will be able to further the promotion of innovation in their respective markets. In this light, the framework also anticipates potential development of joint innovation projects on the application of key technologies such as digital and mobile payments, blockchain and distributed ledgers, big data, flexible platforms (API), and other areas of new technologies and services,…

Last week, Lithuania held the largest financial technologies (fintech) conference in the Baltic States – the Fintech Inn conference – with more than 1.300 attendees. With the help of world-class experts (both home-grown and international), the country seeks to increase the speed of fintech innovation adoption. Vilius Šapoka, Minister of Finance of Lithuania, claimed that Lithuania is one of the most attractive countries for fintech startups and research and development (R&D) around fintech. “In such a short period of time Lithuania became the fastest growing fintech hub and it is not going to stop. I don‘t know a country where…

For the vast majority of people, public relations, marketing, and communication may be perceived as one single project; hence, it may be hard to differentiate from one another. Nevertheless, a debrief with active professionals in this sphere will make you quickly realize that each single term is are utterly different and so are these activities. Fintech News Networks had the pleasure to assist a conference in Lithuania during the Rise Vilnius Fintech week and eagerly listened to a speech conducted by Julija Jegorova and Yana Lapitskaya, both of them having founded their own Public Relations and Marketing agencies Black Unicorn PR…

“We are on the right path to finally make a spurt with the Lithuanian Skype. If startups get the support of banks we will witness a much faster breakthrough which will result in a win-win situation for both sides“, says Danielius Stasiulis, a spokesman for the startups of financial technologies. One success story of such kind acts as a catalyst – it shakes the entire market of startups in the country and then entrepreneurs can learn from the example of good practice instead of working by trial and error method. Cooperation between banks and FinTech was also discussed last week…

For the first time in Lithuania starts “Rise Vilnius FinTech Week” which will take place from 22 to 26 October 2018 in Vilnius. Everyone interested in FinTech industry will have the opportunity to hear more about the development of this field in Lithuania, its future perspectives, challenges and insights on the latest achievements directly from the leaders of the financial technology sector. This week the Global FinTech community “Rise Vilnius” invites to participate in their organized events, seminars, discussions and meetings, and the networking sessions on the most relevant FinTech topics. According to Mariano Andrade Gonzalez, the executive director of…

In the past years, Sweden has witnessed the rapid growth of its fintech ecosystem with 188 fintech companies established in Stockholm alone as of early 2018, according to the Stockholm Fintech Guide by Invest Stockholm. Several of these ventures have risen to international fame. Klarna won a full banking license in June 2017, payments company Bambora was acquired by Ingenico for 1.5 billion EUR in July 2017, PayPal made its biggest acquisition ever by buying Swedish payments startup iZettle for US$2.2 billion, and BIMA, a Swedish insurtech startup, raised US$96.6 million in a strategic investment from Allianz X in December…

The Bank of Lithuania and the National Bank of Ukraine have agreed to work together to facilitate development of financial innovations. The Co-operation Agreement in the Area of Innovation Development between the two institutions was signed on the sidelines of Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group being held in Nusa Dua, Indonesia, where Fintech issues are discussed at the highest level for the first time. “Given the avid interest from our Ukrainian counterparts and the knowledge we have acquired as part of our successful cooperation with the Monetary Authority of Singapore, we stand…

Temenos , the banking software company known for it core banking solutions has successfully upgraded Baltic International Bank’s private, corporate and retail business lines of Temenos T24 Core Banking to R17. The implementation was supported by Foranx, a certified Temenos services partner. The bank decided to upgrade in order to support its efforts to geographically expand into new markets, and continue to innovate to meet evolving customer expectations. Temenos and its partner Foranx analyzed the bank’s local developments and adapted them to the new instance of T24 Core Banking, as well as installed new modules, before finally migrating the bank to the upgraded…

The Baltic states are gaining importance on the international fintech scene partially as a result of commitment of the different governments but also because of a very active startup scene and entrepreneurial spirit. These countries are increasingly being recognized as fintech-friendly jurisdictions and as attractive places for expansion within the European Union. In recent months, a lot has happened in terms of fintech developments in the Baltic states. The followings are some of the key announcements made these past weeks: Lithuania launches fintech regulatory sandbox Startups and other businesses developing fintech solutions will soon be able to test their…

The Baltic states, formed by Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, are looking to create an environment favorable to entrepreneurship, international talent, and fintech innovation. Estonia, the richest and most developed country among the three Baltic states, has become in recent years a true tech hub supporting the development of innovative ideas. Some fintech companies based or born in Estonia have a worldwide reach, the most notable one being Transferwise. Meanwhile, the Latvian startup ecosystem, yet still nascent, has been booming supported by the government. According to B-Hive, fintech is the most developed technological field in Latvia’s economy. Finally, Lithuania has been…

Taking advantage of the Brexit fallout, Lithunia has been seen to be aggressive in positioning itself as a fintech friendly destination in Europe. While it is not the first country that comes to mind as the next-in-line as a fintech hub in Europe, a recent report has shows that there are currently 117 fintech companies operating in the country. Indicating a relative success with its strategy. Lithunia is also not lacking when it comes to innovative startups, a recent piece done by Fintech News Switzerland highlights 10 interesting startups in Lithunia. Continuing on its ambitions, the central bank, Bank of…

The Bank of Lithuania has been selected as the winner of the first Catalyst Award in the FinTech & RegTech Global Awards 2018 organised by Central Banking. The award was given and the Bank of Lithuania’s activities in the field of innovation was presented in Singapore, one of the most important global financial centres, the Awards running in unison with the central banks’ global summit focusing on new FinTechs and supervisory challenges. According to Central Banking, a journal on the world’s central banks, the judging panel was impressed with the central bank’s broad-based approach to FinTech, and particularly with having…