Algirdas Sakmanas ✨

Next stop: Latvia! The Latvia Fintech Forum is happening on November 5th, 2024 and BankingLab is thrilled to be part of it. Latvia’s FinTech scene is undoubtedly one of the most promising on Europe’s innovation landscape. Let’s meet up! 🚀 #banking #corebanking #fintech

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A stronger global economy? More equities, please....   Yesterday (6 June), the ECB trimmed interest rates but gave the market few clues about future cuts. The US Fed might not reduce interest rates at all in 2024. What is happening? Some leading indicators we (at EnCor) use in our cross-asset allocation model (see our chart) are suggesting the global economy is growing faster than commentators expect. This will mean higher trend inflation, likely implying few or no interest rate cuts from G10 Central Banks in the near to medium term. It also means that Equities should be in favour. As we outlined last month in our latest client webinar, we again increased weights in Equities in our clients' portfolios for Q2 2024. #assetallocation #wealthmanagement #equities

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Centralized or decentralized? Take a look at my interview with Telewizja Biznesowa and see which option we at zondacrypto prefer, and why. Thanks for a great conversation!

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The “ Pivdenny West Bridge” Program Now in the Reliable Hands of Reģionālā investīciju banka Since the second half of 2022, the “Pivdenny West Bridge” project has been bringing together the teams of Pivdenny Bank and Reģionālā investīciju banka (RIB) to support the expansion of Ukrainian businesses within the EU. Through the “ Pivdenny West Bridge” program, Ukrainian businesses gain access to essential services in European bank RIB, including account setup, swift and efficient operational support, execution of complex transactions for acquiring business assets, and, most importantly, access to financing—services that can be challenging for Ukrainian entrepreneurs to obtain from EU banks. In two years, two banks joint efforts have attracted a range of premier business groups to the program, including Farmak, Biosphere Corporation, YURiA-PHARM LLC, Kormotech Global, UPG, RETAL, umgi, DTEK, Nova Post Europe, Meest International, Enamine Ltd., and others — nearly 50 business groups in total. Through “Pivdenny West Bridge,” we’ve successfully delivered several unique loan agreements, such as: • Farmak Project: Financing for the launch of a new pharmaceutical plant in Spain, totaling €12 million. • Biosphere Corporation Project: Financing the acquisition of a household goods production business in Romania and the Alufix brand, totaling €2.6 million. • Leasing Agreement for new tank wagons in Poland: Strengthening fuel logistics through Poland to Ukraine, totaling €7 million. In total, Ukrainian businesses have secured financial support with a common limit exceeding €40 million. Over the past two years, Pivdenny Bank’s Investment Business Department has served as the driving force and moderator of the “Pivdenny West Bridge” program. The project has proven its value and effectiveness, meeting its target objectives. Now, it is time to hand over program’s ongoing support and further development to the Reģionālā investīciju banka team, whose expertise and experience will ensure the program’s continued success and growth. The collaboration between our banks’ joint teams will continue. Meanwhile, the Investment Business Department has new, ambitious strategic goals ahead, focusing primarily on building partnerships with International Financial Institutions (European Investment Bank (EIB), European Investment Fund (EIF), EBRD, IFC - International Finance Corporation, U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, USAID) The role of IFIs in supporting Ukraine and its institutions is substantial and will only grow. These organizations are also supporting private Ukrainian businesses through cooperation programs with Ukrainian banks. Pivdenny Bank is committed to expanding its contribution to supporting Ukrainian businesses and strengthening the Ukrainian economy.

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The future of #SME Lending is embedded - embedded into business platforms of the SMEs and e-commerce. In the panel, we had 3 representatives of SME lenders offering embedded SME lending in the #CEE region: Lemonero, PragmaGO.tech from Poland, and PastPay from Hungary, offering BNPL for B2B. Watch full discussion ↙️↙️ #smelending #smefinance #embeddedfinance #embeddedSMEfinance

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🚀Amazing news for the Fintech & Insurtech Association of Slovakia (FINAS) community! 👏We are excited to announce that Finas will participate in presenting the fintech sector at the Ministry of Economy of the Slovak Republic. 👉The presentation will take place on May 30, 2024, at the Ministry of Economy of the Slovak Republic. Stay tuned for more updates and insights! #finas #fintech #members #mhsr #nbs #innovation #crypto #legislation #bitcoin #blockchain #finance #slovakia #bratislava

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Absolutely thrilled to have been part of the brilliantly organized #WomenInTechSummit in Warsaw! 🎉 This significant event gathers both women and men interested in further development, new job opportunities, and learning. Business 🏢 and academic 🎓 representatives under one roof share their experiences with participants. 🌐💼 #ESG - I was a panelist, discussing the practical aspects of ESG, expertly moderated by the fantastic Joanna Maraszek from PlanBe.eco. We focused on implementing #carbonfootprint counting in transactions and other practices among B2B and B2C clients, and the potential of green initiatives. 🌍💼💡 We also debated on #ecommerce vs. traditional retail - what’s better for the planet? Plus, we explored the business opportunities related to ESG. In my opinion, ESG offers the greatest opportunities to small and medium-sized enterprises (including FinTech) for rapid development in new directions. 🚀🎯 #Inclusion - What was truly commendable were the inclusive measures taken by the organizers. Children under 18 could join with a parent for free, drinking water was freely available, and non-gender restrooms were provided. They even organized a collection of unused mobile phones and had a kids' corner, making it a family-friendly event. 👪💧📱 Being part of the Women in Tech Summit was a truly enriching experience. Here's to more such empowering events! 👩‍💼💪💫 #WomenInTechSummit #ESG #Finance #Innovation #Leadership #KnowledgeSharing 😊

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AI hallucination regulator. During the FinTech & InsurTech Digital Congress in Warsaw, Przemyslaw Koch from VeloBank S.A. shared practical insights on AI in banking. Most discussions on AI at conferences are usually abstract. But VeloBank uses a real-world solution - an AI engine with a "hallucination regulator." Depending on the query, this feature sets the AI's "hallucination" level from 0 to 10. It ensures that the AI can chat freely with clients while maintaining accuracy in critical banking operations. Kudos to the team for their cutting-edge work! 👏 How can your business implement such practical AI solutions? Let's discuss it! #Fintech #AI #CustomerService

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PrivatBank has closed UAH 100m working capital deal under 5-7-9 state program with IMC, one of the leading agri holdings in Ukraine. What makes this deal a remarkable one is not the amount but the context. IMC operates 120k ha of agricultural lands in Sumy, Chernihiv and Poltava regions. First two are the regions neighbouring with russian federation and thus they are far from being a safe place. During the first weeks of the full scale russian invasion of Ukraine these regions were partially occupied and suffered heavily. However, immediately after the liberation of these territories in Spring 2022 IMC renewed its operations there in order to catch the agri season. Despite all the challenges of the last years the company keeps on working, constantly invests into renewal of its agri machinery, infrastructure and expansion of own logistics capacities. Moreover IMC constantly delivers high crop yields. #PrivatBank in its turn is committed to support Ukrainian business. We both provide access to 5-7-9 state program and deliver commercial financing. Following the demand from our clients we focus more and more on financing of investment needs of Ukrainian business. This is our contribution to the recovery of Ukrainian economy. Беремо і робимо!

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Kamil Pruchnik, PhD thank you for your post. As you declared you kept your resolution and read the book on PKO Bank Polski. Keeping commitments is a very important quality of a leader. Congratulations ! Just as you wrote the book "From Moneybox to Cloud. The story of PKO BP's transformation" is a book about people, because banking (business) is always about people! Understanding that "business is always about people" isn't just a feel-good statement-it's a fundamental principle that should guide strategy, operations, and decision-making at every level. Organizations that embrace this truth and act accordingly will find themselves better equipped to navigate challenges, seize opportunities, and create lasting value in an increasingly complex world. The most effective leaders understand that their primary role is to inspire, guide, and empower other employees. Technical expertise matters, but emotional intelligence often determines a leader's ultimate success. In an age of artificial intelligence, automation, and digital transformation, the human element of business becomes more crucial, not less. Technology should enhance human capabilities and connections, not replace them. The most successful businesses of the future will be those that master the art of human engagement while leveraging technological advances. Thank you again to all the bank employees who have changed the DNA of PKO !

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Another milestone for #BLIK in 2024! 🚀 BLIK has set a new record, reaching 625.5 million transactions in a single quarter—marking an impressive 38% YoY growth. Even more astonishing, we achieved 81 BLIK transactions per second in Q3! E-commerce continues to dominate as the most popular category, with significant growth seen across sectors such as fashion, financial services, bill payments, betting, and for the first time, tourism! Here’s how our key channels are performing: 🔹 E-commerce: 289.1 million transactions - up 27% YoY 💻 🔹 P2P: 154 million transactions - up 41% YoY 📱 🔹 POS: 164.1 million transactions - up 61% YoY 📊 🔹 ATM: 18.3 million transactions - up 12% YoY 🏧 This remarkable growth highlights how digital payments are revolutionizing daily life for over 17 million Poles! Click here to read more 👉 https://lnkd.in/dTKPwA6S #ecommerce #Q3 #results

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❗End of WIBOR Index❗ National Bank of Poland's Financial Market Committee decided on Tuesday to choose the new reference rate to replace the WIBOR index in numerous financial contracts in Poland, including housing loans. After conducting the second round of public consultations in the autumn, it was decided that the new rate would be one of the indices from the WIRF (Warsaw Financial Market Index) family, specifically the WIRF variant. 💡What's that? ✴️ WIRF is based on unsecured deposit transactions within a group of credit and financial institutions. ✴️ The WIRF variant selected is calculated from these data but excludes deposit transactions from certain financial institutions, and it also features a higher minimum transaction volume threshold. ✴️ WIRF- is a technical name for the index, with the final name to be decided through further discussions - could be constructed similarly to the European ESTR (European Short Term Rate), hence its potential name "WSTR" standing for "Warsaw Short Term Rate" 🕛 The first application may take place in government bonds at the beginning of the second half of 2025, and shortly thereafter in new contracts, including mortgages. #WIBOR #WIRF #WSTR #Banking #Finance #FinancialNews #EconomicIndicators #InterestRates

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We are glad to announce that Fintech Association of Georgia will support Baltic Payment Forum on March 5 in Vilnius as a Partner. The main goal of Fintech Association of Georgia is to support the development of the Fintech industry in Georgia, to create a Fintech ecosystem, to develop technological innovations, to assist Fintech startups in their establishment and development. Also, the main task of the association is to act as a facilitator - between market participants, stakeholders and regulators More details https://www.fintechs.ge/ Join us at Baltic Payment Forum www.payforum.tech where 300 + delegates from 30+ countries meet! #promoney #balticpaymentforum

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We took part in the Raif Business Talk event from Raiffeisen Bank Ukraine. The topic of the event was "IT & AI in Agriculture." Evgenii Sapizhenko, Deputy Director of Agribusiness for Innovation and Digital Development at Kernel, spoke about the use of innovations and artificial intelligence (AI) in the company. The event brought together more than 100 representatives of Ukraine's leading agribusinesses to discuss the development strategies of Ukrainian agritech. Here are the main points that we shared at Raif Business Talk: 1️⃣ Ukraine is among the TOP-3 countries in terms of systematic implementation of innovations in crop production. We have long been ahead of European countries and compete with the US and Brazil. 2️⃣ Precision farming, R&D, and development of FMS systems will determine our efficiency reserves in the near future. 3️⃣ AI is not just a trend but a tool that will become as commonplace in the future as MS Excel for an economist. At Kernel, we actively use certain elements of AI and scale its application in agribusiness. 🔬 For example, for four years now, we have been assessing the density and uniformity of row crops using drones and Computer Vision technology. The Scouting agronomist's mobile app helps to count grains on the ear of corn and achenes in the sunflower basket from a photo. This development helps to significantly speed up the process of assessing biological yield and collect important qualitative data for deeper analytics. All these are elements of our FMS DigitalAgribusiness, which is actively developing. 👉 Find out more about our agricultural production management system using the hashtag #DigitalAgriBusiness

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Question: in which country the Regulator of the banking sector will assist you in the process of getting your #FinTech license? Answer: in Latvia! Latvijas Banka /or Central Bank of Latvia/ is helping the applicant to better understand the requirements and receive the license (including the #MICA one, for #CryptoAsset service providers) Want to know more? Join us at "𝘙𝘪𝘨𝘢 - 𝘛𝘦𝘭 𝘈𝘷𝘪𝘷 𝘍𝘪𝘯𝘛𝘦𝘤𝘩 𝘏𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘺 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘳": - on Thursday, December 5 - online from anywhere - LIVE in Tel Aviv Register via link 🔻 #Crypto #Licencing #Passporting #AML #Regulator #FinTech

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Full version of my short interview with Pascal Ruhland on mBank's Q3 2024 results and plans.

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Yesterday, an important event took place in the banking sector - 17 largest banks, including JSC Oschadbank, signed a Memorandum on banking financing of projects for the restoration of the country’s energy infrastructure. This is a significant action. This event demonstrates the unity and responsibility of banks in the face of national challenges. The joint commercial framework proposed by these banks takes into account the needs of various business sectors, ranging from small enterprises to large corporations. This will help attract funding for various energy restoration projects, which is crucial for the country’s development. This initiative is characterized not only by the speed of decision-making, but also by balance and detail in the development of financial proposals. This is a positive step towards the restoration of the country’s energy capabilities, which is one of the most important tasks today. We thank the leadership of the National Bank of Ukraine and the banks that signed the Memorandum for their leadership in this matter. Together, we will achieve more and strengthen the energy sector, and consequently the economy of Ukraine. #ukraine #energy #economy #banks #bank #finance #power

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