A word from Fintech Belgium’s Chairman

A WORD FROM

Jean-Louis Van Houwe

Chairman FinTech Belgium asbl/vzw

Dear FinTech Community, Dear friends,

Welcome to the Digital Finance Summit DFS-2022, the seventh edition of our annual event:

BOUNCING BACK!

It is such a great pleasure to organise this 7th edition of what has become over the years THE fintech event in Belgium: the Digital Finance Summit. Last year, more than 500 participants (of which > 25% international visitors), >100 speakers and and >40 exhibitors while we stood on the verge of an additional Covid-19 lock-down….

Again for this year, we shall propose a “phygital” event although we feel from you all more eagerness to connect again as humans, rather than avatars “moving in a Metaverse”.

The fintech sectors has been ever booming in 2021 with more than 200 Bn.USD investments around the world, the USA still leading in front of other regions, but Europe following with a share of 26 % within the top-three league, next to Asia. Belgium did not meet its proportionate share of investments & fundings, yet our ecosystem is bright, elaborated and legitimate, considering the maturity of the services proposed in our country. No matter what one does, Fintech remains by far the number one investment sector, over any other tech but sadly not in Belgium!

Over the last year, Fintech Belgium has been instrumental in creating a political awareness of the importance of the sector for our economy to bounce back after the pandemic. It is therefore such a pleasure to have State Secretary of economic recovery, Thomas Dermine, and State Secretary of digitisation, Mathieu Michel, expose their vision on how further develop our Fintech economy in Belgium.

Looking back at this year, I would like to warmly thank all those fintech lovers and passionate people that have supported our non-profit organisation, in so many ways, and with a special gratitude for our supporting partners without whom this event would never take place.

Allow me also a special word of gratitude for the Fintech Belgium team, the Directors of our Board spending lengthy non-profit hours, and our members (more than 120 which is a massive representation) to make Fintech wonders happen!

For this seventh edition, we will address the most burning questions regarding Digital Finance, with the special focus on Open Data, Resilience, ESG and Technology.

• a main stage with eminent keynotes, debates and use cases. • a second stage where EU start-ups will steal the show with their compelling pitches during our European FinTech Pitch Battle! • a third stage dedicated to interaction where you will deep dive into specific topics during immersive round tables and hands-on workshops.

Since last DFS, Fintech Belgium has been extremely active!

We have further boosted our FIRe Innovation Hub, the Fintech, Insurtech, Regtech, etcetera Tech Powerhouse: 8 000 square meters dedicated to co-work, meet, and learn for the European fintech community moving now from the Central Station, Brussels, towards Silversquare North. The FIRe Innovation Hub is the host of our non-profit federation and the European Digital Finance Association (EDFA with 15 European Fintech associations) of which Fintech Belgium is a founding member. This space at the heart of Brussels provides a wonderful business lounge to all those policy makers and Fintech specialists meeting to craft our industry and deciding on policies such as the PSD2,OpenBanking, Dora, eID or the CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency).

Over the last 12 months, FTBE has organised numerous webinars, BeNeLux events, meetups & workshops organised throughout the covid-19 months, with the magnificent help of our partners: more than ever, was the feedback from event attendees commendable on the quality of the sessions!

Our participation to several international Trade Shows (M2020 with a stand shared with 7 of our members, WebSummit, French R:Evolution, Paris Fintech Forum, ICT Spring, … ) and economic missions (Dubai, USA) helped us not only to create better ties with international Fintech Communities, but also accompany some of our political leaders to understand what great fintech initiatives are taken abroad; hence inspiring ourselves for wiser decisions.

Last year, Fintech Belgium jointly created the BAx (Belgian Blockchain Association) as crypto continues to mature: don’t forget that more than 30 Bn. USD have been funding businesses worldwide in 2021!

This year, our efforts have been dedicated to making FIRe the innovation facilitator in the Belgian financial industry. Our goal is to help accelerating corporates, banks and insurance companies by bringing the fintechs and all the relevant stakeholders of our industry around their challenges to connect, collaborate and innovate.

We are very excited to announce the launch of our first FIRe Accelerate beginning of December 2022. An innovation sprint week based on the industry challenges and designed to accelerate corporates. Innovation think tank, reverse-pitches, tech deep dive, masterclasses, a 2-day-hackathon, networking sessions… A whole week dedicated to Innovation in FS.

Our fintech sector, as underlined above, has been growing and fascinating faster than ever!

ESG is becoming more than an acronym for our sector: more and more innovative services are created with SDG at the core of their design. It is therefore certain that our sector will continue to strive in the future, contribute to the recovery, even accelerating it, while taking each year more investment share and attention of investors and governments. Each year, Fintech Belgium continues its development and focus on booming & exciting verticals: payments, regtech, cryptos, insurtech, banking, cybersecurity, AI or wealth management. Bigtech are looking with greedy eyes on providing financial services, Banks and Insurers are digitally transforming themselves, while the formers propose more and more embedded services to non Fintech players, hence building more challenges for the Regulators…

In conclusion, I truly look forward to meeting you during our 7th Edition of the Summit: I can’t wait having the joy of exchanging views, sharing ideas, and building news dreams!

Yours sincerely! Jean-Louis