finweek

 

BR A T I S L A V A – October 5, 2022 – The sixth edition of the Finweek Bratislava conference, which took place from September 20 to 22, confirmed that Slovakia has the potential to be the fintech leader of the V4 countries and thus put itself on the world map in financial innovation. Up to 55 foreign and Slovak experts and innovators from the banking and IT sector, including state representatives, spoke at the largest sector-oriented conference in Slovakia, who, in addition to the latest trends in the financial world, also spoke about challenges and necessary legislative changes in order to support the creation of a new Central European innovation center.

Digital financial tools and services are developing at an incredible pace, but what we need is that they are not only innovative but also safe and user-friendly. The 6th edition of Finweek Bratislava – a three-day financial marathon, which took place from September 20 to 22 in Bratislava’s HubHub Twin City – was focused on these topics.

“Just as a few years ago we were talking about an online standing order in the bank that we would issue ourselves, today we are talking about blockchain solutions, decentralized finance or the cryptocurrency market – a completely new sector that is a huge opportunity for Slovakia. That is also why we are trying to get support in building a technological infrastructure, which will include a blockchain center operating on the basis of the fastest supercomputer in the world from Tachyum. The primary goal is to attract foreign investors and young minds, including those who went abroad years ago,” says Davy Čajko, founder of FINAS – Fintech & Insurtech Association of Slovakia, whose vision is also supported by Tachyum. “I’m keeping my fingers crossed for FINAS to fulfill its ambition to create an innovation hub focused on new financial technologies in Bratislava, which will have an impact on Slovakia. The competition in the region is strong, so I am glad that Tachyum can provide a unique technological advantage in this regard, which is a supercomputer with artificial intelligence on the scale of the human brain,” says Robert Cisár, Business Development Manager, Tachyum.

An important part of the conference was the discussion “CEE: opportunities in the innovation region”, the aim of which was to open a dialogue about the new innovation region in the field of fintech created in the CEE region. Shmuel Ben-Tovim, President & CEO of The Fintech Community of Israel, also sees great potential in this, and also in cooperation with Israeli companies. According to Pavel Čverha, Vice president at FINAS association & Lawyer at Prosman & Pavlovič, Slovakia can benefit mainly due to its central location within Europe: “Our goal is to make Bratislava a center for innovations that will attract investors. That’s why we created an ecosystem of 50 companies in Slovakia. Within this ecosystem, we are launching The Fintech Valley initiative and starting mutual cooperation between the V4 countries”.

Great opportunities can result from this dialogue. One of them is cooperation with the Ukrainian fintech association in the creation of a fintech hub in Bratislava. “This hub is part of our new project – The Fintech Valley Europe, and at the same time a step by which we will at least partially help our colleagues in Ukraine,” says Čverha. Binance also wants to support Slovak and Ukrainian startups. “We would like to cooperate on the creation of such a hub. We have to focus primarily on supporting the IT sector,” says Daniel Fekete, Binance. Shmuel Ben-Tovim considers mutual collaboration to be extremely important in the current situation. Benjamin Berényi (PastPay.io | Hungarian Fintech Association) also supports the initiative of cooperation between countries in the fintech sector, and he will be happy to participate in this project in the future, as does Rostyslav Dyuk, who greatly appreciates such steps toward Ukraine. “I support the initiative of connecting countries in fintech, and I will certainly welcome the idea of ​​establishing a Slovak-Ukrainian fintech hub in Slovakia,” says Dyuk. He considers education to be of primary importance – according to him, the quality of regulation will grow with improved education. The same opinion is shared by FINAS, which, together with University of Economics in Bratislava, plans to prepare a new subject focused on fintech innovations.

According to Shmuel Ben-Tovim, fintech companies should feel strong support from the government. This, along with good cooperation with European countries, is also characteristic for Israeli fintech companies. “However, Israel lacks a sandbox in which we could test our ideas and products, and which would be an advantage for Slovakia,” says Ben-Tovim. According to Rostyslav Dyuk, new challenges in the fintech sector depend mainly on the speed of the government’s response. We also see this in the case of the war in Ukraine, where new technologies can literally save lives. It is no longer just a kind of “entertainment”, which is why, according to him, new European legislation on digital assets will be needed.

The banking sector, financial services and insurance sector currently contribute for up to 14.3% of Slovakia’s total GDP. Compared to other segments of the national economy, this segment is the largest producer of GDP. Even so, it lacks clear legislative rules that would properly grasp financial technologies and thus make Slovakia more attractive for foreign investors. Binance sees great potential in Slovak startups and would like to invest in some of them in the future. “We would like to stimulate the interest of Slovak companies in blockchain,” says Daniel Fekete, adding that the company welcomes the regulations. According to Martin Peter, Chairman of the Center for Financial Innovation at Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic is also aware of the problems with regulations and it is in his interest to deal with them. According to him, the solution could be PSD3 or digital ID, which would be effectively used by several sectors.

 

 

 

 

 

Marcus Härtel at the Finweek 2022 conference: “One of the biggest challenges for CBDC is to find the most suitable “future-proof” solution because we will only have one chance to get it right”

B R A T I S L A V A, October 13, 2022 – In 2024, we expect the launch of the European MiCA regulation, which will bring a lot of changes to the “crypto world”. The Finweek Bratislava 2022 conference was also about them, which brought together financial experts and regulators from different parts of the world and thus pointed out the necessity of cooperation between the state and the private sector in solving issues of the financial future. This, like crypto, will also be shaped by the CBDC – a new financial system that is one of the biggest challenges since the introduction of the euro itself. The Finweek conference again this year opened up the fundamental topics of the fintech sector, which is expected to reach USD 698.48 billion by 2030, growing by 20.3% from 2021 to 2030 alone.

The three-day conference Finweek Bratislava 2022 attracted financial leaders from around the world to Bratislava. The conference focused on financial innovations was opened by Martin Peter, head of the Center for Innovations at the Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic, which Finweek sees as extremely important, especially in these difficult times. He sees its significance in new, innovative ideas that will move us forward as a society and thus contribute to a better future.

The source of innovative ideas was the 1st discussion – A time of reflection on current global development – Towards a new paradigm of the global financial ecosystem, in which Petia Niederländer, Austrian National Bank, mentioned several factors that should motivate us to introduce CBDC. These include financial resilience, monetary sovereignty, and strategic autonomy. Anikó Szombati, Central Bank of Hungary, added to them financial inclusion, competition on the payment market, which will result in better financial services, or the need for a national financial system, and Peter Paluš, Permanent Representation of Slovakia to the European Union, also mentioned financial stability and payment transformation. “The introduction of CBDC does not mean that the current system will stop working. They will coexist together, it will just be necessary to differentiate between CBDC for retail and wholesale,” explains Anikó Szombati.

According to Anikó Szombati, everyone expects CBDC to be a reality in the next 10 years, but so far no one knows how to get there. “So far, very few countries have started with the pilot program – both smaller and larger, such as China or the Bahamas. Unfortunately, I don’t see much cooperation in this area between the V4 countries, which I hope will change in the near future,” says Anikó Szombati. According to Martin Bruncko, Vice President of Binance for Europe, the development of CBDC in Europe lacks dynamism and speed. “We can see the first failed attempts in Europe in Sweden. If central banks will be waiting with implementation, the private sector may overtake them. The so-called “stablecoins” linked to the Euro are already working and will soon start gaining more and more popularity,” warns Martin Bruncko, according to whom it is important that the digital Euro is built on the basis of blockchain. Bruncko also admits that he does not see the difference between CBDC and the digital money we already use, but Petia Niederländer claims that CBDC has a completely different business model than the digital money of commercial banks.

According to Jonas Gross, Digital Euro Association, the importance of CBDC should be that it will bring something extra to the economy compared to the current financial system. In other words, CBDC should come with features that the current financial system lacks. According to Jonas Gross, every CBDC project is a little different and it only depends on the specific country and how it wants to use it. According to Peter Paluš, the goal is mainly the correct setting of the CBDC and not the speed of its introduction.

Marcus Härtel, European Central Bank, sees the digital euro as one of the biggest efforts since the introduction of the euro. The result should be a new payment system allowing to pay in euros anywhere within the EU. “One of the biggest challenges for CBDC is to find the most suitable “future-proof” solution because we will only have one chance to get it right” points out Marcus Härtel. Jonas Gross reminds that users’ privacy is one of the basic requirements for the Digital € project and, according to Peter Paluš, it should also be environmentally sustainable.

The 2nd discussion “Regulations & MiCA” focused on the upcoming European regulation, which according to Rok Žvelc, DG FISMA, European Commission, will bring the long-awaited regulation of crypto assets. The aim is to support innovation through various tools. Daniel Ďuriač, National Bank of Slovakia, expects that MiCA should be fully operational around mid-2024. “Slovakia does not yet have any comprehensive regulation, and it is MiCA that should bring about the change. After its launch, crypto-asset service providers can receive a license from a national supervisory authority, allowing them to enter any EU country. Regulation should help prevent fraud and bring greater transparency. People will be able to verify companies thanks to MiCA, while at the same time it will give national supervisory authorities the power to enforce these rules”, explains Daniel Ďuriač. Lynn T. McConnell, head of Binance’s compliance department, just reminds that some regulators already have a list of fraudsters published on their websites, and according to Rok Žvelc, MiCA will also bring a list of regulated and unregulated companies at the level of the entire EU, not just in individual countries.

According to Roman Chandoga from the Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic, the MiCA project is also welcomed by his ministry. According to him, MiCA will clarify the legislative framework and also bring several challenges that the Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic will have to deal with. Roman Chandoga also states that although the European market may seem overregulated, it is actually very difficult to keep up with it because it is evolving very quickly. According to Daniel Ďuriač, after the introduction of MiCA, the European market will become the first large market with this type of regulation, which will be its strong competitive advantage compared to other markets. Lynn T. McConnell shares the same opinion, adding that proper implementation will be needed to enforce the regulation. “MiCA is not suitable for some areas. This mainly concerns the DEFI and NFT sectors, which will therefore not be part of MiCA. Even for them, however, it will be necessary to consider possible regulations in the future. Now it is important that MiCA also brings clarity to what stablecoins are, and which stablecoins can be classified as e-money,” explains Daniel Ďuriač.

According to Rok Žvelc, international cooperation is also very important in this area, as regulations concern the whole world, not just Europe. Those in Singapore and Hong Kong, according to Lynn T. McConnell, focus mainly on AML, while many other countries, according to Rok Žvelc, are introducing them mainly in connection with stablecoins: “Unlike them, MiCA will be a comprehensive regulation and will cover all crypto assets.” However, according to Daniel Ďuriač and Roman Chandoga, the real challenge will be crypto-taxation, which FINAS is also dealing with in Slovakia in addition to MiCA. “I can confirm that the solution to crypto taxation is also in the interest of the Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic, which is why we have already had several discussions with the FINAS association,” says Roman Chandoga.

A problem within crypto assets is also the lack of educational experts who understand the regulations. Therefore, according to Lynn T. McConnell, increasing the education of regulators is also important, thanks to which regulations will be of higher quality. However, education is also important in terms of resistance to fraud, which, according to Lynn T. McConnell, can have a very negative impact on people’s lives: “That’s why at Binance we work with various market players and try to educate people.” According to Roman Chandoga, this is also the reason why regulation is necessary. Even though it may seem to some that the European market is overregulated, the need for regulation is emphasized by the amount of fraud that occurs in this area, explains Roman Chandoga.

The Finweek Bratislava 2022 conference was organized mainly thanks to the support of several partners and supporters:

  • Main partner: Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic, National Bank of Slovakia, VISA, Binance, Blik, 365.bank

  • Supporter: Portu, CRIF – Slovak Credit Bureau, Fumbi

  • Tech support: Norriv, Slido

  • Side event partner: Zlatá minca, FINAS |Fintech & Insurtech Association of Slovakia

  • Venue partner: HUBHUB

  • Gallery partner: ASG

  • Media partner: StartitUp, SITA, Nextech, Satosi.sk, Financie v pohode, Bankovnictví, Euroekonom.sk, Start Money Match, O krypte, MediaKlik, Zlatá minca, Pravda

All other information about the upcoming conference can be found at Techevents.eu and on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.

All previous conferences and discussions can be found in the archives as podcasts or on the YouTube channel.