Singapore & Nordic fintech hubs ink exclusive deal

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LATTICE80, the world’s largest fintech hub, has signed a ‘memorandum of understanding’ with the Nordic Finance Innovation, an exclusive partnership to collaborate and leverage shared resources between the two regions.

The agreement between the Singapore-based LATTICE80 and the Nordic Finance Innovation (NFI), a financial services incubator active in the Nordic region, is based on a mutual agenda to promote innovation in financial services within their respective markets – Singapore and Norway.

This is LATTICE80’s first partnership with a European-based organisation.

Based off a self-defined ‘six pillars of fintech success’, the deal will include an office sharing agreement, events collaboration, in-country exclusivity, exchange programs for members, the sharing of mutual contacts and networks, as well as an overarching goal to raise awareness of fintech’s potential between Asia and the Nordics, according to a LATTICE80 release.

Joe Seunghyun Cho, chief executive at LATTICE80 and chairman of Marvelstone Group, said the deal presents an ideal opportunity to bridge the geographic divide between the booming fintech ecosystems of Asia and the Nordic countries.

“We look forward to welcoming fintech startups from the Nordics to Singapore and our other hubs in Asia, and vice versa. We are certain our fintech startups in Asia will be thrilled by the opportunity to experience the Nordic culture, business and regulatory environment, and networking opportunities.”

Iren Tranvag, chief executive at NFI, said that shared business cultures between the Nordics and Asia would facilitate a fruitful exchange between the fintech hubs.

“With these characteristics, they may be used to cooperate as a test environment for new services and provide access to the wider markets of Nordic and ASEAN respectively,” Tranvag said.

“Nordic Finance Innovation wants to build global bridges together with LATTICE80 to strengthen our relationship with the Asian market by being present, through exchange programs, organising common events and sharing knowledge about the fintech developments that are shaping the future.”

The Nordic region’s future as a fintech hub has shown enormous potential. Last year, fintech accounted for over 11 per cent (€67 billion) of total capital invested in the Nordic region, three times more than the total investment figure for 2015, according to a 2016 Deloitte survey.

In a recent survey sponsored by DNB, Norway’s largest financial services group, over two-thirds of respondents expect the Nordic region to be the world’s leading fintech hub by 2020.