Viktoria Soltesz recently published an article with Framnex explaining why FinTechs need a payment and banking strategy before they build their infrastructure. A FinTech may work with several banks and payment providers while all of them still depend on the same bank, processor or payment route behind the scenes. This means one change in pricing, risk appetite or supported markets can affect several providers at the same time. A payment and banking strategy helps FinTechs und

Viktoria Soltesz recently moderated a FinTech by HIPTHER panel about a common problem: do businesses actually know what they need when choosing a payment provider, or do they simply buy what providers sell them? Together with Ugnė Palijanskaitė from Enable Banking and Saulius Racevicius from PACEP, they discussed why Europe has so many payment companies and whether having so many providers actually helps businesses. The main questions were: Why do we have so many payment prov

Financial crime grows every year, while banks and financial institutions invest billions to fight it. Compliance, transaction monitoring and Anti-Money Laundering programmes are taking over our lives and making business harder every day. But are we doing it right? For some unknown reason, many financial institutions still tick boxes instead of seeing the big picture and focus only on individual transactions, while much larger behavioural changes develop across an account over

Imagine doing everything right, following every rule, passing every check, and then your bank suddenly tells you: “We don’t want your business anymore.” Sounds strange, but unfortunately companies face this problem every day. Being legal and fully compliant does not guarantee that a bank or payment provider will work with you. Banks have their own rules about what they consider risky, and sometimes even a perfectly legal business can look too risky or difficult for them. This

Fintech, payment and banking today affect every area of the organisation. But every department focuses on its own responsibilities, targets and KPIs while assuming somebody else looks after the complete payment flow. As a result, companies move forward with decisions that very few people fully understand. Every department reviews its own area while believing somebody else has already looked at the bigger picture. Everyone believes somebody else has already made the right deci

Fraud today is one of the most influential business challenges, but we still handle it separately from UX decisions. Every scam victim ultimately moves money through licensed financial institutions or registered businesses, all of which should operate within regulated financial systems and should be protecting us - but almost 60% of adults in the Asia-Pacific region experienced scams directly or through someone they know during the past two years. The figures become even mor