On 10 June 2019 in Vilnius, the Bank of Lithuania, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Ministry of Finance will hold the first joint high-level seminar to share expertise in FinTech and discuss ways to harness its potential and mitigate the related risks.
Vitas Vasiliauskas, Chairman of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania, will provide an overview of Lithuania’s FinTech sector from a market regulator’s perspective. Mr. Tao Zhang, Deputy Managing Director at the IMF, will present the initiatives undertaken by the IMF and the World Bank in the field of financial innovation. Finance Minister Vilius Šapoka will speak on the government’s strategy for seizing FinTech opportunities in Lithuania. Marius Jurgilas, Member of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania, will discuss risks associated with FinTech businesses and ways to build constructive partnerships with market participants. The seminar will also host representatives from FinTech firms and the Association of Lithuanian Banks.
Lithuania is among the first countries in the world to put into practice elements of the Bali FinTech Agenda – the IMF and World Bank’s guiding principles regarding FinTech and its regulation.
The Agenda was put forward in October 2018 given rapid advances in financial technology and their transformative effect on the economic and financial landscape. It advances key considerations with regard to FinTech, distilling them into 12 elements (including recommendations on enabling growth of the sector and mitigating inherent risks) that arise from the experiences of member countries, including Lithuania.
Mr. Zhang will be the second highest-ranking official of the IMF to visit Lithuania after the IMF’s Managing Director Christine Lagarde (2013) and the former Managing Director Michel Camdessus (1997). Lithuania has been a member of the IMF since 1992. In its highest decision-making body – the Board of Governors – Lithuania is represented by the Chairman of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania and the Minister of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania (alternate member).
The seminar will take place at Rise Vilnius (Gynėjų g. 14)
