Startup Hungary, which supports the development and growth of technology companies in Hungary and the strengthening of the Hungarian startup community, hosted another „fireside chat” with Lightyear co-founder and CEO Martin Sokk at The Spot Budapest.
The app, which provides access to the world’s largest stock markets and allows trading ETFs, is no stranger to Fintech.hu readers, as we have reported on its successes before.
The service, which offers multi-currency accounts and trading, has been available to Hungarian customers for a month now, who can hold their savings in dollars, euros or pounds sterling in addition to forints.
Lightyear charges a very attractive fee of only 0.35% for currency exchange. The app charges a flat €1/£1 fee for EU and UK shares, and a 0.1% fee – capped at $1 – for US shares.
Lightyear also allows users to buy fractional shares, and ETFs are free of charge. However, in addition to the low fees, the lack of a TBSZ account is a sore point. Product development is already underway, but until the launch, this also needs be taken into account when calculating the final profit, as there may be tax liabilities.
One of Lightyear’s strongest offers for Hungarian customers is the 12.25 percent interest payment on uninvested forints. However, at least as strong an offer is the interest rate of 4.25 percent on dollars, 2.5 percent on euros and 3.75 percent on pounds.
A much needed addition to the Hungarian market
Lightyear’s arrival was much needed. According to their presentation, only 12 percent of the domestic population has some kind of an investment. This is a low figure, especially compared to the 15 percent in the EU and 50 percent in the US. Clearly, there is room for improvement in the area of conscious financial planning and saving.
The app itself provides support for this. It is very easy and straightforward to use. As you would expect from a leading fintech start-up, registration and identification is fast, simple and, of course, completely digital.
In response to questions, Martin Sokk explained that the company operates in Hungary under a licence from the Estonian FSA. As such, all Hungarian clients are subject to Estonian investor protection procedures. This includes an investor protection guarantee of up to €20,000 (roughly HUF 7.5 million).
In his presentation, he also pointed out that although crypto investments are considered an exciting and interesting area. However, they are not yet being addressed due to the relatively small size of the market. In Lightyear’s experience, although many people hold all cryptos as investments – typically bitcoin – it currently represents only a small percentage of their portfolio.
The app can be downloaded from both the App Store and Google Play.
(Photo: Darab Zsuzsa)
