Supported by the European Fund for Southeast Europe Development Facility (EFSE DF)

Yesterday, the National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia, supported by the European Fund for Southeast Europe Development Facility (EFSE DF), held a one-day workshop for the financial technology - FinTech. The objective of this workshop is to familiarize in more details part of the experts of the central bank with this new financial industry, and to analyze the topicality of this issue globally and what are the current experiences of the countries with developed FinTech industry and in developing countries.

As emphasized by the Governor of the National Bank, Anita Angelovska Bezhoska, PhD, in her opening address, although FinTech companies in continental Europe constitute only small part of the banking markets, payment services and assets management, yet, they are growing, since they quickly enter markets and compete with banks. According to the FinTech acceptance index, one third of the consumers use at least two or more FinTech services and become increasingly aware of FinTech as part of their ordinary life. By evaluating the services offered by FinTech organizations in five broad categories - money transfers and payment services, financial planning tools, savings and investments, borrowing and insurance, the Index shows that money transfers and payment services continue to be leading in the change made by FinTech. This is a signal that the central banks should also be interested in the developments arising from the development of this financial technology and educate their staff in order to be prepared for the new challenges at global level, since, as emphasized by the Governor Angelovska Bezhoska, the fast growth of FinTech organizations has created a lot of dilemmas, among which, the key dilemma - what are the gains that FinTech brings to society on the one hand and what are the risks that FinTec creates on the other.

“The FinTech topic is receiving increasing attention in the central banking community, including in our central bank. We closely monitor the development of FinTech, assessing the gains they bring and the risks they pose, and we try to obtain the optimum benefit, taking into account the local context. An important step in this direction is the draft-law on payments, which is expected to provide an impulse for new innovative companies with innovative, but safe financial services” – emphasized the Governor Angelovska Bezhoska in the ending of her address.

The workshop was led by Mr Jay Tikam, an expert in the FinTech area, who has twenty-six years of working experience in the area of commercial operations, of which twenty-two years he works in the financial services segment. The emphasis of his presentation was placed on the perception and analysis of FinTech from the position of the central banks, putting across to the experts from the National Bank numerous experiences and opinions of other central banks from Europe. In the second part of the workshop, the experts from the National Bank, whose work has common ground with the FinTech issue, held a fruitful discussion.  

This workshop is just one of the many projects put through by the National Bank with the support of the European Fund for Southeast Europe Development Facility (EFSE DF), which is a long-time partner of our central bank in the field of financial education.