As a result, „it is likely to become the first third party payment provider (TPP) in Romania authorized to provide both Open Banking services,” the company says. The fintech enters the last phase of authorization for SmartAccounts, only months after obtaining the NBR license for SmartPay, the first payment initiation service in the country.
Smart Fintech announces they have officially received the preliminary authorization from NBR (National Bank of Romania), the regulatory authority, as a Payment Institution and Account Information Service Provider (AISP) under the European PSD2 Directive. Thus, we can expect the start-up to mark a new premiere in Romania, becoming the first third-party provider (TPP) licensed in Romania for both Open Banking segments.
„Obtaining this preliminary authorization from the NBR represents a significant milestone for us. It enables us meet sooner the needs we have identified in the market after launching SmartPay (our payments initiation service). But, at the same time, we believe it is proof of our capacity to understand our customers’ requirements and adapt, by moving things forward in due time in a responsible manner,” declares Mihaela Georgescu, Co-founder Smart Fintech.
Once completing the authorization process, Smart Fintech will provide integrated payments services and account aggregation information services to its clients, based on the AIS and PIS licenses granted to Smart Fintech for the first time in Romania.
„Soon after becoming the first (and only) Open Banking TPP in Romania this spring, we focused on developing and consolidating SmartPay (our payment initiation service) on the local market so that we can witness this year the first clients’ transactions through Open Banking in Romania powered by a fintech, not a bank. If we initially thought this process would require a sustained effort to inform and educate the market perspectives, being a quite new domain in our country, we soon realized that all we had to do was to light the spark. We found the innovative ideas adding value to the final consumers already there, and Smart Fintech, as a certified TPP, should simply be the catalysator to bring them to life. So, we decided to rapidly turn our attention to the AIS area as well, in parallel,” adds Mihaela Georgescu.
SmartAccounts enables any user – individual or legal entity, with electronically accessible accounts, opened at the leading Romanian banks, to access and operate in various use-cases, outside the bank environment, essential account information (balances, transactions, transaction history).
The technological solution promises simplicity – both for the final user, and for the integration in various apps processing financial information, security and complete control: the user, as the owner of his data, decides when, where and to what purpose to use its bank account information.
„No later than November this year, following the final authorization of our services, Smart Fintech’s clients and partners will be able to offer their final users aggregated account information from multiple banks in Romania. These stand as the foundation of generating new opportunities on the market, using products and services tailored to the consumers’ needs and their financial profile,” states Andrei Dumitru, Co-founder and technical expert Smart Fintech.
Smart Fintech is Platinum partner at international fintech conference Banking 4.0
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:
