The Nordic FinTech community is quite strong, as Nordic and Baltic countries are considered to be one of the most digitally mature globally. Digitalization has been a key driver for innovation and success in the FinTech industry. Sweden was the second country we talked about, and now we are moving on with Norway.
Norway’s FinTech development
Pandemic has been a real challenge, and still many countries, including Norway, have found multiple ways to encourage its FinTech community. Norway launched a national FinTech project to limit the financial impact of the pandemic in collaboration with the Norwegian Ministry of Finance, the Norwegian Tax Administration, DNB (Norway’s largest bank), and Finance Norway. The country also ranks in 27th place on the Global FinTech Index Ecosystem.
More than 120 FinTech companies are operating in multiple fields, such as:
- Payments,
- Digital banking,
- Enterprise financial software,
- Security & compliance,
- Capital raising,
- Insurtech,
- Wealth management,
- Data and analytics providers.
Multiple fast-growing FinTech companies are worth mentioning. Aprilia Bank provides digital banking services intended to renew traditional small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) banking. Settle Group is a European mobile payment leader providing products and services for the retail and corporate markets. Isabel is an analytics platform for investment professionals.
Norway’s CBDC
Norway’s Central Bank — Norges Bank has been researching CBDC for over four years. As the technologies have been evolving quite fast, the use of cash has been declining significantly. In April, Norway’s Central Bank announced that it will start testing technical solutions for a CBDC for the next two years. However, there is no timeline or stated plans for a possible launch of a CBDC.
Who regulates the industry?
FinTech itself is not regulated; however, the Norwegian legislation asks for licensing when a company is operating in financing activities, insurance business, deposit-taking, payment services, and e-money, FX business, investment services, and activities. When working with cryptoassets, companies are subject to AML requirements and are supervised by the Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority that has also established a regulatory sandbox.
Sources:
Nordic FinTech Report 2021
FinTech Baltic
Coindesk
ICLG
