In recent years, Lithuania has become a center of financial technologies ("FinTech") and is already successfully exporting financial services to other countries of the world. Last year, Lithuania became the leader in the export of IT and financial services in the Baltic countries, overtaking Latvia and Estonia. In the global FinTech index, Lithuania ranks 1st in Europe and 4th in the world. However, will competent professionals be trained now and in the near future? Will there be someone to fill the vacancies?
in 2020 The Lithuanian FinTech sector grew by 18 percent. Currently, it has more than 4 jobs, and companies are constantly expanding their teams and the range of functions performed in Lithuania. It is predicted that the sector will expand in a similar way in 000.
A constantly growing sector
According to VšĮ "Invest in Lithuania2020-2021 report, "The FinTech Landscape in Lithuania", although 2020 was a year of challenges, the Lithuanian "FinTech" sector expanded strongly like never before. A host of local companies and international players such as: Mambu, Curve and Ria have joined in, taking advantage of the country's multidisciplinary talent pool, innovative infrastructure and progressive legal regulation. There are already more than 230 FinTech companies in Lithuania, whose activities are focused on payments, financial software, digital banking and lending activities.
Over the past ten years, the financial services industry has undergone many changes, most of which have been driven by the rapid development of technology and the digital transformation of financial services. The mentioned changes are clearly visible - FinTech companies offer a new type of financial services based on the analysis of customer behavior and the application of artificial intelligence. Clients' expectations and wishes are fulfilled faster than the clients themselves ask for it. FinTech startups are troubling traditional players, mainly banks. They need to invest in new technologies for consumers, do it quickly and keep up with the new breed of FinTech companies. Fintech lacks specialists who know not only the latest technologies that create advanced solutions, but also the field of law. "Regulation in the FinTech sector is so dynamic and changing that a lawyer working in this field will never stop learning and improving," emphasizes Evaldas Remeikis, Chairman of the Board of Neo Finance.
New competences are required
The FinTech Landscape in Lithuania 2020-2021 report emphasizes the growing creation of new jobs, which also means the need for new competencies. Digital transformation and technological development have redefined the financial services industry, which has led to changes in many existing laws and regulations at both national and international levels. For this reason, it is particularly important to choose law studies that are oriented towards these new challenges.
Existing practices and the exponentially growing number of FinTech companies are leading to the formation of a new area of law - financial technology law. It is becoming a unique area of law within the broad financial law sector. FinTech refers to new technology that aims to improve and automate the provision and use of financial services. FinTech law focuses on the area of law mainly concerned with the identification of new services and the application of relevant regulation. Fintech law is directly related to privacy and personal data protection issues, anti-money laundering (AML) challenges, terrorist financing ban threats, tax and creative accounting issues, new business management principles, intellectual property principles and contract law issues. A FinTech lawyer must be well versed and able to apply existing legislation and have clear insights into the possible future legal regulation of FinTech services. It also helps financial service providers to properly comply with the mandatory regulation of many different areas of law, to help assess the potential legal risks of applying new technologies.
Who will prepare the specialists?
It is very important that universities respond to changes in the market, offer innovations and try to create programs for the young generation that are focused on the economy of the future. The field of "FinTech" will only expand and grow, and the skills and knowledge students will acquire will be useful not only in Lithuania, but also abroad.
"Work in this field is extremely dynamic and never boring. Every day, lawyers face various challenges and new questions from clients, which especially develop creativity and project management competencies in finding the most suitable solutions for business. We advise on issues ranging from financial and corporate law to the riddles of tax and contract law. It is very gratifying that MRU is training such new generation FinTech legal leaders", says Sorainen's lawyer Liutauras Vasiliauskas.
We are currently witnessing a revolution in the financial services sector driven by artificial intelligence and blockchain technologies, as well as the development of open banking and the adoption of other technologies in the financial sector (e.g. personal identification using personal biometrics). All this fundamentally changed the provision of traditional financial services to clients, and at the same time created many new legal situations that were not prepared for legal regulation.
Most FinTech companies use innovative solutions and are constantly challenged. In order to implement new decisions, legal acts that do not regulate these new legal relationships may be violated, and self-regulation mechanisms are prohibited. Such situations can harm the provision of services and the growth of FinTech companies. It is for this reason that many countries around the world aim to create and improve the FinTech legal environment to meet the new needs of the financial services industry.
Law and FinTech studies conducted at the Mykolas Romeris University expand the boundaries of a typical classical lawyer and allow you to acquire professional competences in the field of FinTech. "This area will continue to grow and new legal relationships will be formed in the new FinTech environment. We will face a growing need for specialists who are able to properly identify these new legal relationships, adapt the existing legal regulation, and, if necessary, initiate a change in the legal environment", says the head of the "Law and Financial Technologies" study program Assoc. Dr. Marius Laurinaitis.
