Fintech +

According to the Financial Stability Board’s definition, ‘fintech’ refers to technologically enabled innovation in financial services that could result in new business models, applications, processes or products with an associated material effect on the provision of financial services.

'Fintech' may refer to entities that operate in the financial sector and that have business models based on innovative technologies. It may also refer to the technologies themselves, applied to financial services and used by those entities or traditional financial system participants as banks and payment institutions.

'Fintech' is a portmanteau word formed from the phrase 'financial technology'.

Portugal FinLab is a communication channel between innovators and the three Portuguese financial supervisors – the Banco de Portugal, the Portuguese Insurance and Pension Funds Supervisory Authority and the Portuguese Securities Market Commission. This channel aims to support the development of innovative projects in FinTech, InsurTech and RegTech by answering regulatory questions posed by those authorities so as to ensure the projects comply with the applicable regulatory framework.

Any innovative project can apply to Portugal FinLab. The projects that fall within the competence of at least one authority are invited to pitch. Subsequently, the authorities select a number of projects for detailed analysis, in report format, of the main applicable regulatory requirements and potential obstacles to the project’s implementation.

• Portuguese financial regulators launch the 4th edition of Portugal FinLab
• Financial regulators launch third Portugal FinLab
• PORTUGAL FINLAB’s 2nd edition launched at the Web Summit
• FINLAB OPEN DAY: Session to present results - First Edition (in Portuguese only)
• Regulators and Portugal Fintech officially announce Portugal FinLab (in Portuguese only)
• Portugal FinLab: Regulators and Portugal Fintech create platform to support financial technological innovation (in Portuguese only)

Payment services under the PSD2 

Authorisation to set up: Credit institution; Financial corporations; Payment institution; Electronic money institution

Account information services and payment initiation services

Money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF)

Registration of virtual assets service providers

Credit intermediaries (in Portuguese only) 

Registration of foreign management companies

At national level

• Characterisation of PIs, EMIs and fintechs with activity in Portugal (in Portuguese only)
• Virtual currencies: what they are and how they work
• European Supervisory Authorities alert consumers to virtual currency risks (in Portuguese only)
• NCSF’s warning to consumers about ‘virtual currencies’ (in Portuguese only)

At European level

• MiCA
• EU Digital Finance Platform
• ESAs procedural framework for Innovation Facilitator Cross-Boarder Testing
• ECB – Innovation in market infrastructure and payments
• EBA assesses benefits, challenges and risks of RegTech use in the EU and puts forward steps to be taken to support sound adoption and scale-up of RegTech solutions
• Crypto-assets: ESAs remind consumers about risks
• EBA assesses impact of FinTech on payment institutions' and e-money institutions' business models
• ESAs publish joint report on regulatory sandboxes and innovation hubs
• The EBA publishes thematic report on the development, implementation and adoption of Big Data and Advanced Analytics
• EBA – Fintech Knowledge Hub
• EBA – Fintech approach
• SSM – What are fintech banks and what impact will they have on financial services?

European legislation

• SSM – ECB publishes guides to assessments of licence applications for banks and fintech credit institutions
• Guide to assessments of fintech credit institution licence applications, March 2018

Global initiatives

• BIS – Innovation and fintech
• BCBS Sound practices
• FSB – Financial innovation and structural change 
• FATF – position on Fintech and RegTech

• Presentation of Director Hélder Rosalino at the “Portugal em Exame” Conference: “Os desafios dos bancos centrais a caminho do euro digital”, 16 Feb 2023 (in Portuguese only)  
• Opening Address by Vice-Governor Luís Máximo dos Santos at the FinCoNet Annual General Meeting, 21 Nov 2022
• Presentation by Director Hélder Rosalino at the Conference “Os desafios da transformação digital no Setor de Pagamentos”, 16 Nov 2022 (in Portuguese only)
• Opening Remarks by Director Ana Paula Serra at the National Council of Financial Supervisors Workshop: “The path to RegTech/SupTech maturity”, 16 Jul 2021
• Concluding Remarks by Director Hélder Rosalino at the National Council of Financial Supervisors Workshop: “A inteligência artificial na transformação do sistema financeiro”, 19 May 2021 (in Portuguese only)
• Concluding Remarks by Vice-Governor Luís Máximo dos Santos at the “Fintech Meeting: Onboarding Digital”, 29 Apr 2021 (in Portuguese only) 
• Presentation by Director Hélder Rosalino at the Smart Payments Congress: “RegTech e Suptech: regular e supervisionar a tecnologia”, 22 Oct 2020 (in Portuguese only)
• Opening Remarks by Director Hélder Rosalino at the Conference “Desafios da Transformação Digital que a Banca enfrenta”, 23 Jan 2020 (in Portuguese only)