Many financial companies and startups from Britain and elsewhere are applying for a licence in the burgeoning fintech hub that is Lithuania, in order to ensure they have access to the European Union after Brexit. The Bank of Lithuania has noticed an increase in licence applications over the past two years and has already granted more than 110 licences to fintech companies (e-money and payment institutions, crowdfunding and P2P platforms).
„As the number of companies licensed by the Bank of Lithuania is growing, we are enhancing our supervision capacities. Among other things, we have recently established two separate divisions – the Electronic Money and Payment Institution Supervision Division and Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Financing Division, thus increasing the number of staff working in these areas.”, said Jekaterina Govina, Advisor to the Board Member of the Lietuvos bankas (Bank of Lithuania), in a interview to thepaypers.com
More, the Bank of Lithuania is working on a blockchain sandbox dubbed „LBChain“, which so far has received a great deal of attention from developers. LBChain is blockchain-based sandbox, run by Bank of Lithuania, combining (technology) infrastructure and regulatory support (in the form of regulatory sandbox).
The regulatory sandbox was launched in October 2018 as a part of the Lithuanian fintech strategy, in order to build an innovative environment in the financial sector. The idea is to provide financial companies (both pure fintechs and incumbents implementing fintech solutions in their activities) with the possibility to test their innovative solutions under regulatory guidance in the real environment with real customers.
„Currently, we are in the second stage of the project. During its first stage, we have selected the service providers that will create the platform itself. In the second stage, they have been joined by six selected fintech companies which will contribute to the development of the LBChain platform, as well as build a prototype of their envisaged product, both of which will be later tested with a focus group. The third stage of the project is planned to start in September 2019, where fintech companies will create and test their products within the LBChain environment. If the project proves to be successful, we are planning to launch the LBChain platform at the beginning of 2020.”, Govina explained.
As from the PSD2 perspective, „Bank of Lithuania will create an open banking working group in the Lithuanian Payments Council, which will explore different use cases and customer journeys for new Open Banking measures in Lithuania.”, according to the bank’s official.
Banking 4.0 – „how was the experience for you”
„So many people are coming here to Bucharest, people that I see and interact on linkedin and now I get the change to meet them in person. It was like being to the Football World Cup but this was the World Cup on linkedin in payments and open banking.”
Many more interesting quotes in the video below:
