Bankloch

  Belgium loves underestimating itself. Ask almost any Belgian entrepreneur about the country’s business climate and the reaction is often immediate: taxes are too high, regulation too complex, labour too expensive, venture capital too limited, the market too small…​ We compare ourselves to Silicon Valley and conclude we are hopelessly behind before the conversation has even properly started. In the United States, founders supposedly build billion-dollar companies in garages before breakfast. In Belgium, we are still scheduling a steering committee to determine whether the garage complies with zoning regulations. And yet, beneath all that national pessimism, Belgium has quietly built one of Europe’s more impressive technology ecosystems . Not loudly or theatrically. Belgium rarely dominates startup headlines or founder culture online. But while the country kept doubting itself, something significant happened in the background: Belgium started producing globally relevant tech co...

At the end of August, Revolut launched a new savings product in Belgium —   a non-regulated account with daily interest payouts . As the first of its kind in Belgium, the news made headlines, and LinkedIn buzzed with speculation:   Is this the future of banking in Belgium, or just clever packaging? At first glance, it feels fresh and exciting. A savings account where your balance ticks upward daily. Visually and psychologically, it’s engaging. Revolut also promotes the   compounding effect   of daily payouts, since each day’s interest is calculated on a slightly higher balance, unlike traditional accounts that pay interest quarterly or annually. But look a little closer, and the added value appears limited. On a Standard Revolut plan with €10,000 saved, your net daily interest is around €0.29 - not even 30 cents. The compounding effect is real but negligible over time. Especially when you consider that non-regulated accounts like Revolut’s are taxed at   30% , w...

Last Friday, I had the opportunity to attend the Digital Finance Summit in Brussels, an annual fintech conference organized by Fintech Belgium. It was a packed day of networking, reconnecting with old acquaintances, and attending insightful keynotes and thought-provoking debates. Clearly, the Belgian fintech scene remains vibrant, delivering exciting new innovations. The dominant themes of the conference were the upcoming payment revolutions and the buzz around AI, which sparked significant discussions. Below are some key takeaways: Payment Revolutions Instant Payments : Domestic and cross-border real-time payments are gaining momentum, with over 70 real-time payment networks launched globally in the past decade. SEPA Request-to-Pay : This rollout offers exciting opportunities for Fintechs, banks, and merchants. PSD3/PSR Regulation : This upcoming regulation aims to address shortcomings in the current PSD2 directive. A2A (Account-to-Account) Payments : In 2023, A2A payments represented...

Belgium is unfortunately   not (yet) a hot spot of Fintech in the world . Contrary to our surrounding countries from which several Fintech Unicorns have emerged (e.g. Qonto, Alan or SpenDesk in France, Revolut, Monzo and Starling Bank in the UK, Mollie, Adyen and Bunq in the Netherlands or Trade Republic, N26 and Solarisbank in Germany), Belgium unfortunately doesn’t have a pure Fintech unicorn yet. This is unfortunate, as such unicorns often form a source of inspiration and a pool of money and people, which result in interesting new Fintech start-ups. Belgium does however have some   unicorns , which have a strong link with the financial services industry, i.e. Collibra (data governance, for which the financial sector is one of their primary targets), Odoo (a platform for business apps with strong financial integrations), Deliverect (integration of online food orders into restaurant’s POS systems) and team.blue (provider of internet services), but no pure Fintech player. It’s...