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 is largely a bonus for us starting from the second position. It allowed Polish banks to utilize cutting-edge solutions from the get-go,” Gołko said.
“This does not mean that our fintech market has no room for development – quite the opposite. The digitized millennial entering the market, the falling costs of processing and accessing information, the availability of highly educated IT specialists – all these factors have provided a fertile soil for the emerging industry. Other contributing factors include the size of the market and Poland’s ambition to become a leader in the CEE region.”
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