The Czech Republic as a fintech power: we have experts and potential for development

The Czech Republic is one of the richest countries in the world, with a high standard of living to boot. However, we are missing a global brand. Something that would make us the most important players in the industry. But we have the potential to become a leader in the field of fintech.

Just as the Swiss are known for watchmaking, the Germans for precision engineering, and the French for wine, the Czech Republic is still searching for its global brand. Yet we have something to build on. The glass industry, brewing, and automotive engineering are all at a world-class level. In the future, we must focus on sectors with high added value. We have all the prerequisites to become world leaders in cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, or financial technologies.

The Czech Republic as a financial services country

The Czech Republic has a strong base of financial professionals. This is evidenced by high stability, service levels, and profitability. And „start-ups“ play a large part in this. For example, Home Credit was founded from scratch and became a world leader in consumer finance. It also nurtured an entire generation of Czech managers who remain top in the field.

Czech fintech is a source of innovation

There are now over one hundred companies in the Czech Republic in fintech and insuretech. Colleagues and fintech ambassadors at Fintech Cowboys have been mapping them for a long time. A large number of them are brought together by the Czech Fintech Association. Czech fintech companies can benefit from the background of strong financial services, which are among the best and most innovative in the world. This is evidenced, for example, by the level of digital banking or the adoption of electronic payments.

Regulation will trigger changes

However, global competition is also growing, and we must therefore remove barriers to faster development. The long-term and worsening problem is not so much regulation per se, but the application of regulation in licensing and supervision. However, the National Recovery Plan envisages the creation of a (regulatory) sandbox, which would allow fintechs to get off the ground and get started.

Investment in foreign talent

However, a more significant problem remains the long-term vision of how to attract foreign talent to the Czech Republic. Prague and other Czech cities offer a great quality of life, and can therefore be compared to Western Europe or the USA. If we also offer people business opportunities, we have the potential to attract talent from all over the world. They will then attract more and more talent, but they will also serve as inspiration for Czechs in choosing their profession and focusing on fields with high added value, as well as for changing the education system.

We have top experts and the potential for development

We have the potential to export cutting-edge fintech and insuretech globally, for example, in the form of infrastructure services such as risk management solutions, digital customer service, claims processing, insurance claims handling, etc. Furthermore, these solutions often combine finance, cybersecurity, and machine learning, in which we have top experts in the Czech Republic. I would like to see a unicorn in Czech fintech within five years. Let's help fintechs so they can emerge.