FINLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Olli Kiuru, Mia Rintasalo and Essi Hietaoja, Waselius
Waselius Eteläesplanadi 24 A 00130 Helsinki Finland Tel: +358 9 668 9520 Fax: +358 9 668 95 222 Email: info@waselius.fi Web: www.waselius.fi
1. Fintech Market 1.1 Evolution of the Fintech Market The fintech market in Finland has evolved rap - idly over recent years, with the focus shifting from quantity to quality. Traditionally dominated by lending businesses and peer-to-peer (P2P) platforms, the market has seen some firms take the next step by upgrading their licences to become credit institutions or payment/e-money institutions. There has been a rapid increase in services offered to SMEs, while the investment and wealth management scene is still awaiting a breakthrough. Advances in technologies such as artificial intel - ligence, blockchain and quantum computing continue to drive innovation in the fintech sec - tor, with a focus on enhancing existing services. There is also rapid development in crypto-asset business, boosted by a newly implemented uni - fied framework for crypto-assets. 2. Fintech Business Models and Regulation in General 2.1 Predominant Business Models The following verticals predominate in Finland:
• payments; • financial software; • financing; • data and analytics; • application programming interfaces (APIs) and platforms; • wealth management; • investing; • customer service and acquisition; • security and compliance; • insurtech; • crypto-assets; and • blockchain. 2.2 Regulatory Regime Due to the lack of fintech-specific regulation, the regulation applicable to fintech companies is contingent on the business model undertaken. Thus, the regulatory regime applicable to fintech companies comprises the general regulations applicable to financial institutions. In Finland, financial regulation derives mainly from EU law and thereby consists of, inter alia, the following. • The Capital Requirements Regulation and the Capital Requirements Directive are applicable to: (a) credit institutions;
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