The development of the licensed FinTech sector in Lithuania raises quite rapid. The electronic money institution (EMI) and payment institution (PI) sector continued to grow in the first quarter of the year. Income from licensed activities of EMIs and PIs, which form the backbone of the licensed Lithuanian FinTech sector, increased 1.8 times in Q1 2022, compared to Q1 2021, to just over €170 million. This growth was slower than a year ago when income from licensed activities increased more than 4.6 times. The amount of payment transactions grew strongly in Q1 2022 to €173.6 billion and was double the level of a year ago.

At the end of Q1 2022, the public list of EMIs and PIs included 141 institutions (88 EMIs and 53 PIs), compared to 136 institutions (84 EMIs and 52 PIs) in Q1 2021. The Bank of Lithuania published the audited data of the electronic money institution (EMI) and payment institution (PI) sector for 2021: the institutions had almost 10 million customers and revenues grew 3.5 times. In the context of supervision of the sector, the Central Bank assessed the growing risks and focused on individual inspections and sectoral analyses, which covered around 70 market participants. The aim is to strengthen risk management and compliance in the sector that underlies FinTech and to ensure that business development grows only in tandem with compliance maturity.

In 2021, the number of EMIs and PIs operating in Lithuania grew by 7% and amounted to 141 (87 EMIs and 54 PIs) at the end of the year. With a significant increase in the volume of activities of the sector’s institutions, the Bank of Lithuania focused on monitoring compliance with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CTF) requirements, and protection of equity capital and customer funds, internal control requirements, and strengthening compliance. In 2021, EMIs and PIs had nearly 10 million active customers. Around 370,000 of them were Lithuanian residents. The largest turnover of payment transactions was generated by payments made by legal entities, while payments between Lithuania and EU countries (Ireland, Germany) and the UK dominated in terms of the value of payment transactions. 

40% of payment services provided by the EMI and PI sector consisted of direct debit and credit transfers as well as payment transactions using payment cards. One-third of payment services consisted of payment instrument issuance and incoming payment processing services. Open banking services such as payment initiation and account information services were also popular. The number of initiated payments increased almost 2.5 times over the year to 15.1 million payments, while the number of accounts accessed by account information service providers was over 2 million. At the end of 2021, the number of payment transactions amounted to €194.7 billion, up 3.8 times year on year. Revenues from licensed activities increased 3.5 times in 2021 and stood at €502.1 million at the end of the year. 92% of these revenues were generated by EMIs and 8% by PIs. The interest in obtaining an EMI or PI license issued by the Bank of Lithuania remained strong. Approximately 60 potential market participants contacted the Bank of Lithuania and expressed an interest in EMI and PI licenses. The greatest interest was shown by companies operating in the UK and the US.