Nordic Fintech Overview: Financial Sandbox, Swedish Cryptocurrencies and humanitarian blockchain in Norway

It has been two weeks since we gave you the last overview of the Nordic fintech scene and it has not kept quiet. Once again we have cherry-picked the best and most relevant news from each of the Nordic countries.

But before the deep dive we need to turn our attention to a major piece of news with Pan-Nordic implications with the news that Nordic banks may team up on payments as competition heats up.

PSD2 is set to challenge the status quo. In anticipation of the coming changes and challenges the biggest banks across Scandinavia hints that they might form a joint regional system to facilitate payments to mitigate the changes in giving up their payments information.

Sweden

What the world’s central banks are saying about cryptocurrencies

The global attitude towards cryptocurrencies from central banks differ immensely. The oldest of the institutions Sweden’s Riksbank earns an honorable mention in this piece for exploring what possibilities a Swedish cryptocurrency could hold.

India’s government wants to kill bitcoin, but it loves blockchain

India is giving cryptocurrencies the cold shoulder, but they are exploring the possibilities that the underlying technology holds. It is: “time for chain-ge” as Quartz puts it. Swedish blockchain-startup Chromaway has entered Asia’s third largest market to provide their services in close collaboration with one of the southern states.

Germany is still obsessed with cash

If you are aiming to drive a change in behaviour it is important to not only acknowledge technological affordance, but perhaps also sociological underpinnings as well. Bloomberg investigates such forces in this piece that juxtaposes Germans affinity for cash with Sweden’s almost cash-free society.

Denmark

Fintechs will test business models in the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority’s new sandbox

Getting from cutting edge financial technology to regulatory compliance can be a bumpy road for fintechs. But a recent move by the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority – hopefully – aims to smoothen the ride for fintechs.

IBM opens new garage concept in the SOHO startup environment in Copenhagen

Big Blue is moving into SOHO’s shared office space. The aim of the initiative is to guide companies and startups into new technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence.

Norway

Live test of blockchain innovations to help women and girls in humanitarian settings

Blockchain technology holds financial promises as well as social impact dittos. Norwegian Blockbonds are actively pursuing the latter by working to bank the unbanked in third world countries with their block-chain powered solution. They recently pitch at a UN gathering.

Finland

Mash Secures Verifone Partnership to Provide New Pay Later Solutions to Merchants and Consumers Across Europe

Fintech innovation does not necessarily spell out disruption for industry giants – the writing on the wall can also be collaboration. An example of this is Mash’s partnership with the multinational Verifone that will bring the Finnish fintech’s offerings to the rest of Europe.

Zervant raises €6M for its invoicing software for small businesses

The European Union has mandated that invoicing by paper should be a thing of the past by 2020 – e-voicing instead will be the new black. Zervant aims to benefit from that by utilising the capital raised in the fintech’s latest round.

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