A comprehensive agreement has been signed between ’Egy Digitális Jövőért Nonprofit’ and ’Finnovating’ – giving birth to the Spanish-Hungarian Fintech Bridge.
’Egy Digitális Jövőért Nonprofit’ educates the market on digital transformation and digital trends in Hungary. Finnovating, based out of Spain, facilitates cooperation on its platform for all types of fintech players internationally.
Under the agreement, the two parties will engage in mutual knowledge sharing and will familiarise each other with the Hungarian and Spanish fintech sectors in order to contribute to a more active cooperation between the players in the ecosystem.
In addition to their own markets, the companies will also familiarise each other with the markets of their strategic partners. The Spanish side will introduce the Latin American fintech ecosystem in addition to its own market, while the Hungarian side will also seek to lay the foundations for strategic cooperation for Spanish fintechs in the V4 countries.
This means that Hungarian fintechs can also build closer relationships with Latin American markets dominated by digital banking and mobile payments (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, etc.), while the Spanish ecosystem can build relationships in the increasingly vibrant Czech, Polish and Slovak markets through the Spanish-Hungarian Fintech Bridge.
What can we expect from the program?
The cooperation has the potential to cover all fintech sub-sectors, but the parties have identified three areas that will be followed with particular attention, as they see great potential for both the fintech sector and the future of digital finance. These are:
- sustainable financial solutions,
- family banking, and
- financial services to increase the competitiveness of the SME sector.
The choice of problem areas is not surprising, given that 2021 has been a particularly successful year so far for family banks specializing in services for children and young people, and the rise of green financial solutions is clear as well. Small and medium-sized enterprises also have an interest in the rise of fintechs, as they are often overlooked by traditional banking players, in favour of large corporate and retail customers.
The cooperation is especially important in light of the UK’s departure from the EU and the subsequent loss of the largest fintech sector from the bloc. It is crucial to create synergies between the 27 Member States to effectively connect different companies and drive them into value-creating partnerships – which is the aim of the Spanish-Hungarian Fintech Bridge.
The agreement was concluded in Madrid, where several Spanish and Hungarian fintechs participated in a business forum opened by a speech by Péter Szijjártó, Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The Hungarian participants in the event were Peak Shopping Mall Solutions, 5mart Studio, SEON, BlockBen, and the Digital Wellbeing Programme. The Spanish side was represented by 2gether, Biometric Vox, MyTripleA, Fuell, and the aforementioned Finnovating.
