Baltic States – CIS, Banks, Financial Services, Lithuania

"The Bank of Lithuania continues to broaden the horizons of interinstitutional cooperation. Both we and our Kazakhstanian colleagues have already created a regulatory sandbox, offering opportunities for businesses to trial their innovative financial products, thus, it will be beneficial for our countries to share experience and good practices. We will endeavour to jointly promote and provide consultations to innovative and responsible businesses, creating products or services attractive to users and investors,’ said Marius Jurgilas, Member of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania.  

‘We are delighted to sign this agreement with the Bank of Lithuania to enhance collaboration between two regulators and promote innovation in financial services.  This agreement presents a framework to boost cross-border efforts to promote joint innovation projects and strengthen the FinTech ecosystem in the jurisdictions,’ said Assylbek Davletov, the Chief FinTech Officer of  Astana Financial Services Authority.   

This is the third FinTech co-operation agreement signed by the Bank of Lithuania this year; in March, an agreement was signed with the Monetary Authority of Singapore and in October – with the National Bank of Ukraine.   

Furthermore, this year Central Banking, an international journal, selected the Bank of Lithuania as the winner of its Catalyst Award. The judging panel was impressed with the central bank’s broad-based approach to FinTech, and particularly with its achievements in creating an environment favourable to the development of financial technologies.  

Development of a regulatory and supervisory ecosystem conducive to the financial services provision as well as fostering innovations in the financial sector is one of the Bank of Lithuania’s strategic directions for 2017–2020. Together with other domestic institutions, the Bank of Lithuania aims to ensure that Lithuania becomes the FinTech hub in the Nordic-Baltic region.