On Monday October 17th the European FinTech Alliance kicked-off in Frankfurt at the venues of Deutsche Börse AG. The EUROPEAN FINTECH ALLIANCE is an initiative of FinTech companies that pull together their forces as a platform with a non-national, but EU-wide approach. It seeks to fill a long-standing gap, namely to help FinTechs to represent their interests in the political arena and build bridges between policy-makers, regulators and industry’s positions at a European level.
It is important to foster mutual understanding between decision-makers and the FinTech sector by establishing a sustained dialogue and a regular exchange of information
says Co-Founder Marc Tenbücken at the kick-off meeting in Frankfurt.
Members’ Assembly Decided on First Actions
After the establishment in Berlin this summer, the EUROPEAN FINTECH ALLIANCE has already acquired well known FinTech players such as Wirecard, Ingenico, SlimPay, investify, SatoshiPay, OptioPay, Tradico, crossinx, Ebury and Fintech Group. In its Members’ Assembly, the members discussed a first draft for EFA’s statutes and decided on the first actions to follow shortly.
Keynotes and Panel Discussion About the Past, Present and Future of the FinTech Industry
In his keynote, Nikolay Kolev (Co-Founder of moneybookers and Managing Director at Deloitte.Digital) summarized his experience in the FinTech indurstry made both as entrepreneur and advisor. In the fast moving FinTech industry it is important to
Don’t wait to long to do what you prefer
says Nikolay. Niels Tomm, Head of Governmental Affairs and Political Communication of Deutsche Börse AG, encouraged the FinTech audience by saying:
If you are successful, you might end up like us. We were a FinTech too: We electrified trade in the 80ies.
During the obligatory panel discussion the panellists discussed the status quo of the FinTech industry and the upcoming trends. Frank Müller, author and editor of the PAYMENT.TECHNOLOGY.LAW blog explained the regulatory landscape and gave insights to his experience as FinTech advisor. Frank suggests that both banks and fintechs should learn from one another.
It is not a question of FinTechs versus Banks. Everything will be FinTech. It’s a race
European FinTech Alliance – What’s Next?
The EFA will organise a policy day event in Brussels later this year. At this event, EFA will introduce its first actions to foster a more favourable regulatory environment for FinTech Companies.
