“Our country is known as one of the main FinTech hubs in Europe. We want to go further and to boost the growth of the entire financial sector by increasing competition, access to services and strengthening the capital market, thereby creating high added value for our citizens, businesses and the country’s economy in general. In order to properly balance the supervision and development of the sector, we have decided to separate these issues and pay a greater regard to each of them”, says Gediminas Šimkus, Chairman of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania.
He also emphasised the importance of the country’s reputation in attracting new market participants with international profile as the culture of compliance and the highest supervisory standards are important factors for companies when choosing jurisdictions, and the Bank of Lithuania devotes a great deal of attention and effort to these aspects.
The Centre for Financial Market Development, in cooperation with other national institutions, will strive to contribute to the development of the financial market in Lithuania, so that financial institutions generating high added value can continue to establish and grow here and that the availability of services and competition can increase. In addition to an active payments market, the Centre will also focus on attracting new participants in other segments such as credit, capital and insurance markets. The FinTech segment will focus on accelerating the development of WealthTech and InsurTech. Moreover, the Centre will look after the Newcomer Programme for potential market participants (over 630 participants from more than 70 countries have benefited from the Programme since 2016, with almost 20% of participants having been granted licences for operation) and invite them to test innovations in Lithuanian and international regulatory sandboxes.
10 professionals from various units of the Bank of Lithuania have already joined the Centre for Financial Market Development. The Centre is headed by Lukas Jakubonis, who has worked at the Bank of Lithuania since 2017. He has been involved in various high-priority projects as well as advised on the issues of payment systems and financial stability.
“Most of the new participants are targeting the payments or credit market, while the insurance or capital sectors remain less active, even though it is an excellent medium for business development and possible emergence of new unicorns. I see sustainable development as a solution to the problem of concentration in individual segments and a way of reducing the cost of services and creating value for society”, says Jakubonis.
The Centre for Financial Market Development will seek to build a strong relationship with the financial sector community in Lithuania. According to Jakubonis, the first meetings with interinstitutional partners and associations of market participants have already taken place. They were constructive and set out a roadmap for the future. It is envisaged that such meetings will become regular with topical issues being discussed and joint solutions to market concerns sought there.
