Press Release: How Belgian FinTechs reacted on Russia/Ukraine conflict
Russia/Ukraine conflict: Impact on the Belgian fintech sector
FinTech Belgium conducted a survey to analyse the impact and actions taken of the current war in Ukraine. We discovered an element of resilience and proactiveness with FinTech Belgium’s members.
Brussels, 20 April 2022. After conducting a survey to our members, we discovered that 71.4% were impacted by this geopolitical crisis directly or indirectly. While there was an immediate need to act and comply with sanctions and new regulations, 64.3% of respondents have no need to adapt their processes to implement sanctions. Most companies have systems in place already that need only minor adjustments.
The sector witnessed cyberattacks on the 7th of March. “DDOS on a PSP provider on Monday 07/03 leading to failures to process part of the card payments” says Cedric Neve, CEO of Digiteal. Coincidentally Johannes Vermeire, CEO of POM said, “One of our PSP has seen an enormous increase in DDOS attacks”. DDoS attacks are a malicious attempt to disrupt the normal traffic of a targeted server, service or network by overwhelming the target or its surrounding infrastructure with a flood of Internet traffic*. A payment service provider (PSP) is a third-party company that assists businesses to accept a wide range of online payment methods, such as online banking, credit cards, debit cards, e-wallets, cash cards, and more. They ensure customer's transactions make it from point A to point B, safely and securely**. Cybersecurity is crucial and our FinTechs have extremely robust systems in place to secure their data.
Members of FinTech Belgium faced challenges with employees residing in Ukraine & Russia as there were problems conducting salary payments and safety concerns. Some of our FinTechs have developers that were in danger and in need of relocating. Specifically, “We contributed to the relocation of multiple refugees from Ukraine to Europe” says Toon Vanagt, Managing Partner at Data.be. Other companies were able to make donations or subsidise service fees for Ukrainian users.
Adapting
FinTechs in international payments, remittances and RegTech were able to stop interactions with the Russian Rouble and the Russian financial ecosystem. Additionally, some regulators asked to increase due diligence of money flows from Russia and be on alert. Belgian FinTechs have been vigilant since day one of this crisis and are always ready to adapt into the evolution of the regulatory requirements.
As FinTech Belgium, we are proud to have such an innovative community of more than 130 FinTechs that play an important role in the ecosystem. Members are always in the front line to respect regulations and sanctions.
**https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payment_service_provider
------------------
About FinTech Belgium Association:
FinTech Belgium asbl/vzw is the independent federation of FinTechs active in Belgium. Our non-profit association was created in 2015 by and for Belgian Digital Finance companies. It is the first and largest community in the country, gathering over 130 FinTechs, Insurtechs, Regtechs, AccountingTechs, Wealthtechs. Our 3 main missions are to be a platform for dialogue with regulators and other stakeholders, actively and tangibly promote the FinTech sector in Belgium and Belgian FinTechs abroad, and share experience, expertise and information within our community. FinTech Belgium is a founding member of the European Digital Finance Association, created in 2020 to improve communication with the EU policy makers. In 2021, FinTech Belgium launched an incubator right in the centre of Brussels, FIRe Innovation Hub. It is also the founding member of BAx Belgium, a non-profit association dedicated to improving the Blockchain exchanges and custodian environment.
More information: www.fintechbelgium.be
Contact Person:
Xavier Corman (FR) - +32 475 25 60 00 - xavier@fintechbelgium.be
Athanasios Soutos (ENG) - +32 470 75 58 40 - training@fintechbelgium.be
