Author: Fintechnews Baltic

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…

The Baltic States, which comprise Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, have recognized the prospects of fintech and are all looking to excel in digital finance. The region’s large startup community, supportive governments and favorable regulations have helped accelerate the growth of fintech. Several foreign startups have already made the leap and expanded into the region, and while there are numerous reasons why to choose Estonia, Latvia or Lithuania, over other EU countries, these are the seven main comparative advantages that the Baltic States offer: Startup hub Estonia benefited from the early success of the likes of Skype and TransferWise and…

The Baltic States, namely Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, are an exciting place to be for financial services companies and fintech startups. The region is quickly becoming a prominent hub for fintech companies, and is home to not only successful ventures competing on the international scene, but also companies that are defining the agenda of innovation in many areas including money transfers, peer-to-peer lending, and blockchain applications. Fintech in the Baltic States Perhaps one of the most prominent fintech companies from the Baltic States is TransferWise, an Estonian developed and UK-based money transfer service launched in 2011. TransferWise is part of the…

Five years ago, Danish consumers were introduced to a new app, MobilePay. The free of charge and user-friendly solution gave smartphone owners the opportunity to make instant payments knowing just the phone number of the beneficiary. This was the start of the mobile payment revolution. Today, MobilePay has over 4 million private clients across two countries – about 3.9 million in Denmark (90% of the population) and around 0.6 million users in Finland. The app is also used by more than 90,000 businesses. It is estimated that Danish users of the app make payments worth about 137,000 Danish krones (more…

In July, Bank of Lithuania granted an electronic money institution (EMI) license to TransferGo. “We believe that this license will allow us to offer an even better product for international payments in the European Economic Area, because when you hold people’s money, you can offer them better prices. We will be able to provide bank accounts for private individuals and businesses if they need them. They will be part of our ecosystems product,” Daumantas Dvilinskas, CEO of TransferGo, told VŽ, a Lithuanian business daily. TransferGo had sent their license application to Bank of Lithuania last year. Through the company’s platform,…

The Baltic states have become a hotbed for blockchain technology with the region being named “a crypto paradise” for its high concentration of Bitcoin full nodes, strong initial coin offering (ICO) activity, and the fervent support from local governments. This year already, Lithuanian ICOs have raised US$249 million, placing the country third in the world for funds raised, while Estonian capital Tallinn stands as one of the top ten cities in the world. On the topic of blockchain technology, all three Baltic states struck an accord to support blockchain adoption notably in capital market innovations, and are also individually encouraging the development…

Corporate bond offerings were always one of the most compelling ways to invest. Usually, it is considered a big players game. But Lithuanian real estate development crowdfunding startup Röntgen is about to disrupt that stereotype. The platform successfully distributed 14-months bonds worth half a million Euros at 12 percent yield in just 12 days. REWO, a real estate development and investment management company, was the first to make the corporate bond offering on Röntgen. In total, the company has sold bonds worth 3 million Euros to help finance the new real estate project. One-sixth of all raised money came from…

The world is dealing with a widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies, and it’s not an easy ride. Bitcoin, the world’s largest digital currency, is down more than 50% this year, and 66% down from its all-time high of almost $20,000 in late December. Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, and other cryptocurrencies have gone through similar dramatic drops in the past months. One of the main reasons for the cryptocurrency market drop is the uncertainty brought on by new regulations issued by governments and the volatility of the market. For example, Japanese government has just ordered six cryptocurrency operators to improve their measures against…

Nayax, a global payment solutions and management platform for unattended retail, has announced the opening of a new office within Europe, Nayax Europe UAB. Nayax Europe will be situated in Lithuania, the issuing country of the required operating license for the EEA zone and will be hiring a professional staff. Nayax Europe, with all of Nayax offices, practice the most secure transactions, adhering to full GDPR and PSD2 compliancy. Nayax’s certifications include EMV level 1 + 2, PCI, to ensure satisfaction and trust to all its customers and to their consumers. Yair Nechmad, CEO, Nayax Ltd said, “Nayax chose Lithuania…

Funderbeam is proud to announce the publication of their first playbook. In cooperation with Latvian designer Arta Citko, Funderbeam’s CEO Kaidi Ruusalepp created a playbook about foundership and what it requires to be a good founder. The book aims to target schools, youth programs and accelerators for children and teens to educate them about a topic which is rarely touched upon. “Foundership is such an important topic but it is rarely talked about and certainly not taught in school. As a founder myself, I think it is my responsibility to give encouragement to the next generation of founders.” The idea…

Bank of Lithuania – the country’ regulator – has introduced a procedure which will allow companies to apply remotely for Fintech licences. T his regulatory technology  tool willfacilitate the process of submitting and managing applications for e-money and payment institution licences. By introducing this one-click solution, Bank of Lithuania – already the regulatory body able to issue licences in record times – will become even more approachable for Fintech innovators across the world. As of July 2, companies looking to access the 512-million strong EU market will be able to apply directly online for a variety of financial licences valid…

Dubbed the ‘global generation’, over half of all millennials would consider moving abroad for work opportunities, and an increasing amount are starting their own business ventures. With possibilities of owning a home becoming increasingly difficult in the world’s cities, rent prices soaring and the political climate changing, research shows that millennials are less financially stable compared to previous generations. GoCompare has released data to reveal the best places for millennials to start a business, measuring the ease of registering property, starting and running a business on a day-to-day level, trading across borders, and diversity, among other metrics. New research has…

Latvia is home to a nascent but rapidly growing startup scene. Though still trying to catch-up with neighboring Estonia, which benefited from the early successes of the likes of Skype and TransferWise, the country is starting to build a reputation for itself in sectors including fintech. Latvia has much to boast about: it occupies the third position in the OECD in terms of providing access to fiber-optic broadband Internet, has a multilingual population and a highly talented labor pool, and the presence of several programs launched by the government is making Latvia attractive to entrepreneurs. In 2017, the government introduced…

Nordea customers in Finland can now receive instant Euro payments in seconds from friends and business partners from Europe. This includes at any time of the day, seven days a week, all year round. The new pan-European Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) instant payments scheme has made the dream of lightning fast transfers a reality. By making instant Euro transfers available to its customers in Finland, Nordea has become the first bank in the Nordics to offer this breakthrough service. Instantaneous Modern consumers increasingly expect to be able to make purchases at any time of the day and for their…

The Nordic and Baltic region is increasingly becoming a hotspot for fintech innovation. Fintech success is not in short supply in the region, which has so far given birth to half of Europe’s six fintech unicorns, according to a new report by MagnaCarta, Fintech Mundi and Mastercard. These startups are Swedish online payment platform Klarna, Swedish payment startup iZettle which was bought by PayPal in May, and international money transfer platform TransferWise, an Estonian startup that has since relocated to the UK. These have a cumulative valuation of US$6.3 billion, surpassing the rest of Europe’s fintech unicorns with US$5 billion.…

Estonia is well-known in Europe for being a highly developed country in the tech space with approximately 30.6 startups per 100,000 inhabitants. The country is now poised to become a leading fintech hub. Digital innovators like Skype and TransferWise, as well as initiatives such as e-Government and e-Residency, have earned Estonia such praise. Skype, the world’s largest peer-to-peer communications platform, was acquired by eBay for US$2.6 billion in 2005. Payment startup TransferWise, which has since relocated to London, raised US$396.4 million in funding and is now part of the unicorn club. Government push The Estonia government has been supporting the…

Lithuania, which have been promoting itself as gateway destination to the European market for fintech startups from across the world, has seen its digital finance and fintech sector grow rapidly in the past years. In 2017, the country saw no less than 35 new fintech companies being incorporated, according to the Lithuania Fintech Report 2017. One of the prominent fintech startups that took the plunge include Singapore’s InstaRem. “We were looking for a perfect headquarter location in the EU,” said Prajit Nanu, co-founder and CEO at InstaReM. “In Lithuania we found a fintech-friendly and fast regulator, as well as excellent…

BearingPoint’s RegTech platform Abacus has been taken up by Citadele Bank Lithuania. With the Lithuanian commercial bank, the international management and technology consultancy BearingPoint adds a new country to its global footprint. Citadele Bank decided for BearingPoint’s tried and tested platform Abacus360 Banking to meet the European Central Bank’s (ECB) growing requirements on AnaCredit (Analytical Credit Datasets) reporting. As part of AnaCredit, roughly 100 data attributes are required to be reported. Local Lithuanian attributes are currently developed and integrated by BearingPoint to meet local AnaCredit requirements. Over the past two decades, regulation has expanded on multiple fronts and will continue…