May 28, 2019

A need for reliable IT solutions among providers of retail financial services is growing

According to the Bank of Lithuania statistical data, the number of electronic money institutions (EMIs) operating in Lithuania, in 2018 increased from 12 to 40, and the sector's revenue from electronic money issuance and payment services jumped to 6.4 million euro. The ever-changing situation in the market has prompted the Forbis Group’s company – House of Credit Unions, where EMIs comprise 58% of the customers – to make the rebranding. Now it is called Fininbox.

“The former name reflected the essence, because most of our customers were credit unions. However, the market has expanded to include FinTech start-ups, electronic money institutions and the like. Thus, repositioning was logical,” said Tadeuš Šturo, head of the Forbis subsidiary.

“Partly, such rapid growth has become possible owing to favourable conditions created by the local regulatory body – the Bank of Lithuania. According to the Fininbox representative, today, 58% of the company's customers are electronic money institutions (EMIs), credit unions comprise 34%, and currency exchange operators take up 8%. And the customers operate all over the world: in Europe, Asia, America,” said Tadeuš Šturo.

Electronic money institutions make just one of the market groups in the activity of Fininbox offering complex IT solutions for banks, credit unions and other providers of payment services.

“We have customers licensed by both local and foreign regulatory authorities, i.e. Lithuania, Malta, UK, Ireland etc. We are open to everyone, because we have all the technical possibilities to serve customers all over the world,” noted T. Šturo. He also emphasized that close cooperation with the Bank of Lithuania, which is a member of the Eurosystem, makes it possible to promptly respond to any changes in the market or in the rules of play.

“We are talking about the possibility to solve today's tasks, posed by the financial sector, in the most efficient way," emphasized the company's head. In the rapidly changing world, the approach “better rent IT than reinvent it” really works-out for institutions of all sizes, because it allows them to focus on value creation and avoid significant costs and worries,” said the company’s head.

After the rebranding, Fininbox is also planning to expand the range of its services. It seeks to become the pioneer of automated SEPA Instant Credit Transfers and SEPA Direct Debit in Lithuania and move to the fore in implementing the solutions related to the EU second Payment Services Directive (PSD2). In addition, the company offers Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and financial reporting trainings to all providers of financial services. The range of services has been supplemented with the “shared development” model, i.e. a possibility for customers to share the costs related to the development of new functionality.

Currently, owing to the Fininbox IT solutions, using the electronic payment application of the Contomobile electronic money institution, one can send, receive, and manage the funds in personal and business IBAN accounts – and this is the first step of the Forbis Group into the market of financial services.