The finance industry is increasingly international, business models are becoming more digital. Against this background, international exchange in the fintech sector makes an important contribution to growth and innovation. Startup hubs like the TechQuartier in Frankfurt play a crucial role for fintechs from Ireland.
Landing Pad Program of TechQuartier
Fintechs regularly set new standards in terms of digitization. Especially in the fields of AI, Deep Learning, Big Data, Cloud Computing and Blockchain. Still, the fintechs face great challenges. In Germany for example, through very comprehensive regulation and a fragmented market. Meanwhile, the market in Ireland is small and therefore obliged to generate high export volumes.
The use of hubs should now support the international exchange between fintechs. Hub partnerships give companies the option to promote their offers and acquire jobs. A good example of this is the Landing Pad Program of the TechQuartier in Frankfurt. There, a startup has dealt with the so-called KYC model of a fintechs. It includes the verification of the personal data and business data of new clients of a credit institution. It is, for the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing under the Money Laundering Act 2008. It then examined whether and how the model could be linked to its own system.
Dr. Sebastian Schäfer, managing directorof TechQuartiers, gave a statement in this regard. According to him, to promote the exchange, they have launched a welcome week for international fintechs from abroad who are looking at the German market. For the TechQuartier and their partners, this is always very exciting. Because everyone involved gets to know other business models, technologies and technological solutions. New ideas that arise in this way must then prove practicable under the regulatory framework.
Best Practice: N26 and Touchtech
An example of how well the cooperation between a German fintech bank and Irish fintech can function is provided by the cooperation between N26 and Touchtech. N26 integrates the MasterCard 3DS solution and accomplished the first native app integration of the Mastercard Secure Code. 3D Secure is a protocol for online card payments. It includes a third domain provided by fintech Touchtech payments, providing an additional level of security for card payment transactions. It was found that Ireland’s fintech in the security sensitive electronic payments sector owed N26’s tangible added value across national borders.
With these and other examples, the Irish fintech industry now wants to score points in Germany.
Strong interest in German financial service providers
To master the challenges, it is smart to rely on international and trans-European exchanges. After all, financial services are a global business and companies are also active in a wide variety of markets. The harmonization of the financial sector in Europe is important. Applicable regulatory requirements are often growth barriers. Therefore, international exchange is a key requirement for being able to offer products globally as long as the financial market is not yet harmonized.
With more than 2,000 banks, Germany is an exciting market. The Irish now want to conquer fintechs and win as the banks as a cooperation partner. The bottom line seems interesting. After all, Ireland is the fourth largest exporter of financial services to the EU and home to most of the world’s largest financial services and technology companies. And cooperative character has always been a priority in Ireland
Also published on Medium.