FinanceMalta organises networking event for Fintech community

FinanceMalta organised a networking event for the Fintech sector as part of the “Together. Again.” series. It followed the successful first networking event held in November 2021 for the insurance industry. “Together. Again.” aims at bringing together key players and stakeholders in financial services in a face-to-face networking setting.

The “FinanceMalta meets Fintech” event was held on 28 April 2022 and discussed the current status of the Fintech sector and the challenges to be faced, with an eye on the future prospects of the sector in Malta.

The event was opened by FinanceMalta Chairman Rudolph Psaila, who underlined the various initiatives that FinanceMalta takes for the benefit of its members. He gave a brief overview of the plan of activities and the priorities of the Foundation for the coming months. The Chairman’s address was followed by a recorded intervention by Peter Cunnane, Director of International and National Initiatives of Innovate Finance, the industry body representing the UK Fintech sector.

The highlight of the event was an interactive panel discussion moderated by Ronald Attard, Chairman of the Fintech sub-committee of the Malta Financial Services Advisory Council (MFSAC). The panelists were Joseph Zammit Tabona – Chairman of the MFSAC, Herman Ciappara – Head of FinTech Supervision within the Malta Financial Services Authority and Gareth Genner – CEO and Group General Counsel of Trust Stamp, a member of FinanceMalta.

During the panel discussion, participants were also addressed by Shmuel Ben-Tovim, President of The Fintech Community of Israel. The event included several interventions and contributions from the audience, as well as a short Q&A session.

FinanceMalta Chairman commented: “We had a very lively discussion around the importance of having an integrated, responsive and effective ecosystem around Fintech. The priorities for this space are clear: we need to be innovative from a regulatory perspective, whilst at the same time creating the right environment for startups and scaleups to be able to grow and develop. Malta has much to offer operators in this sector as attested also by the speakers from Innovate Finance UK and the Tel Aviv Fintech Community, but we must work hard to be more competitive, create the right environment and attract more talent for the ecosystem to flourish. It is always a pleasure to organize these networking events where our members – operators in the different financial services sectors – can meet and discuss openly with all stakeholders, authorities and regulators. On an international level, we continue unabated to promote Malta as an international financial services centre, providing our members opportunities to participate in numerous conferences and events, and network with their international peers.”

The month of May will see FinanceMalta organizing two more networking events as part of the “Together. Again.” series. The first one will be held on 12 May 2022 and will be dedicated to Private Wealth & CSPs, while on 26 May 2022 the focus will be on Funds and Asset Management.