The National Bank Governor Anita Angelovska Bezhoska attended the 17+1 High-Level Fintech Forum in Vilnius, hosted by the Bank of Lithuania and the Lithuanian Ministry of Finance. At the sessions devoted to the importance of the new financial technologies for the economic development and trade and the equilibrium between innovations and the risk management, she emphasized several important aspects and referred to the activities undertaken in our country in order to support financial innovations and create favorable environment for development of the fintech sector. 

In her presentation, Angelovska Bezhoska placed a special emphasis on the importance of financial innovations to facilitate and support trade, as an especially important prerequisite for sustainable development of small and open economies. In this context, she referred to innovations in the area of payment services, as an important prerequisite for increasing trade links. “Improvements in the field of digital payments tend to increase volume of trade, and accordingly, growth of economies”, she said.

The Governor highlighted the activities that are undertaken in our country to establish infrastructure and regulatory framework for innovative payment services which involve drafting the new Law on Payment Services and Payment Systems that transposes EU directives in this area.

At the Forum, she also presented the other projects in our country the aim of which is to facilitate the process of innovations in the financial area, such as the platform for communication with the fintech sector, the Innovation Gateway. At the same time, she also stressed the need to draw up a development strategy for digitalization of financial services in our country.

In the discussion, Angelovska Bezhoska also referred to the potential risks posed by the process of intensive digitalization of financial services, especially through the prism of the risks to financial stability and protection of consumers. She highlighted the need for active monitoring of financial innovations by regulators in order to assess the effects on financial stability, but also the need for active working in the field of the protection of consumers, including through financial education.

The Fintech Forum was attended by high representatives of the central banks and the ministries of finance from all Central and Eastern Europe countries, as well as representatives of financial regulators in China.

Angelovska Bezhoska also had a meeting with several international experts, discussing the future challenges of central banking community in the field of innovative financial technologies and digitalization.