Thanks to its innovative financial sector, a willingness from the industry to partner with fintechs, and its strategic position within the European Union, Poland is poised to join the competition to become one of Europe’s key fintech hubs and the leader in the region, according to a report by Fintech Poland. Fintech in Poland Opportunities and BarriersTitled “FinTech in Poland – barriers and opportunities,” the document sheds light on the state of fintech in Poland and identifies key opportunities and challenges to the growth of the industry. The research found that the current Polish market is characterized by positive attitude of banks towards fintech companies and by mutual desire to work together. Polish fintechs as well are largely geared towards collaboration with banks, recognizing the need for cooperation and mutual benefits resulting from it. Furthermore, implementations such as contactless payments by means of cards and HCEs-based on mobile payments, bank branded pay-by-link payments and sector solutions such as BLIK have made the country a European benchmark for this type of technology. BLIK, a mobile payments service, was introduced in 2015 by six of the biggest banks in Poland. Key Fintech Hub in EU Unsurprisingly, electronic payments and financial platforms are the primary areas of focus within the Polish market. Other well-developed areas include analytics, machine learning, and sales channel development, and crowdfunding. According to Bernard Gołko, a fintech sector market expert, although Poland is indeed lagging behind in many sectors of the economy, its financial industry is definitely an innovative one, not only when compared to the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region, but the whole of Europe. “This...
(Reuters) – Fitbit Inc said it bought wearable payment technology assets from Silicon Valley-based startup Coin, as it looks to develop mobile payment technology for its wearable fitness devices. The terms of the deal, which was completed on May 12, were not disclosed. By Narottam Medhora in Bengaluru; Editing by Sayantani Ghosh (Business Insider) Read more on “Fitbit is getting into mobile payments” here SL ...
The last week has signified an interesting turn in the relatively young history of the alternative lending industry. In particular, online lending took a hit and perpetuated a wave of skepticism around it. The event to contribute to it is related to one of the largest alternative lenders – Lending Club – whose shares plummeted significantly in less than a week. In the period between May 6 and 10, Lending Club’s share prices went from $7.09 to $4.10 with the lowest point at $3.98 per share. Overall, Lending Club’s share prices were reported to drop by 35%. Investigations around the quality of loans didn’t particularly help the situation. By Sofia (letstalkpayments.com) Read more on Lending Club casehere SL ...
Enthusiasm for certain fintech investments is said to be cooling among venture capitalists and private-equity firms already. So the natural question is, how can enterprising startups survive, much less grow? Read more on “Survival tips for fintech startups” Here SL ...
Robot hotel staff and virtual bank assistants have moved from science fiction to marketing fact, but systems that analyse customers’ data to give personalised responses must be used carefully to avoid appearing intrusive. By Maeve Hosea on 18 May 2016 Read more on “How brands are using artificial intelligence to enhance customer experience” here SL ...
