The flagship fintech and blockchain event of the Central Eastern Europe (CEE) region is debuting this year in July in Oradea, a city in Romania located at the very heart of the CEE region.

Unchain Fintech Festival will take place on the 13th – 14th of July 2022, as a physical event, and will represent stakeholders from the business landscape in payments, loans, insurance, personal finance, e-commerce, banking, and more.

The CEE region has not yet had an event that represents the entire fintech community in the region. With the Unchain Fintech Festival, things will change. Creating an annual place for the ecosystem to meet and share its common goals and challenges, by encouraging cooperation between the region’s financial institutions and talented entrepreneurs, the event will give the whole of the CEE region a platform to showcase the best solutions provided by companies, from one of the most talented regions of the world.

Taking place in Oradea’s old and picturesque citadel, the event will put fintech and blockchain on the map of CEE. Starting with 2022, Oradea will be the fintech fortress in the month of July, every year going forward.

The main event partner for the Unchain Fintech Festival will be Visa, as part of the company’s mission to help drive innovation and bring banks and financial institutions closer to a digitalized future.

“Visa firmly believes that the fintech companies and innovative banks will play a crucial role in developing the next generation of financial services and payment solutions, due to their pioneering approach and agility. We are excited to further extend our commitment to build the future of commerce by partnering with Unchain Fintech Festival, aimed at fostering digital financial innovation across CEE”, stated Jakub Kiwior, CEE Regional Managing Director, Visa.

Their mission is to help the actors of the financial scene explore digitalization, and this partnership is an opportunity to help connect the smaller actors to the wireframe of Visa’s knowledge base, blueprints for innovation and resources.

Among the hottest digitalization topics discussed at the conference will be:

Digital Journeys, DeFi & Open Banking – The sometimes painful but necessary process of digitalization that financial institutions have to go through is one of the main concerns on the Unchain agenda. The digital journeys of these institutions, the resources, tools and previous examples that can help them will be one of the central topics on the agenda, as well as curated presentations about the latest decentralized finance and open banking initiatives that can help companies and institutions make progress on their digital journeys.

Regulations & CBDCs – With so much innovation taking root and transactions becoming decentralized and digitalized more and more, regulation is often one of the biggest challenges. This collection of talks will center around ways to make the synch between fintech innovation and regulatory bodies flow better, to the gain of all kinds of organisms involved in the ecosystem, from innovators to banks and to national and transnational institutions that are tasked with regulating or benefit from it.

New Business Models – Payments and Digital Assets – These are a huge branch of fintech innovation that warranted reserving its own category in the agenda of talks to come. As the Western world and the CEE following suit are decentralizing finances, a rise of new payment and business models – culminating with cryptocurrencies, NFTs and metaverse payments – are bringing unprecedented opportunities and challenges.

The main conference talks will be complemented by fireside chat sessions with the region’s unicorns and a start-up pitching stage where the up-and-coming fintech start-ups can pitch their ideas to a jury of experts. All contenders will gain valuable insights and free honest feedback on their ideas and strategy, but only the best start-up will win the big prize. All CEE start-ups from the fields of fintech and blockchain are welcome to pitch their ideas to a committee of field experts using THIS FORM.

Unchain Fintech Festival and Visa, the event’s main partner, believe that this framework of bringing together representatives from established institutions, successful unicorns, corporate giants and fresh start-ups will prove to be beneficial for boosting the overall business and innovation signal in the region.

“Worldwide, but also distinctively in the CEE region – through our Warsaw Innovation Studio, Visa works closely with fintech companies and other innovative financial institutions of all sizes, offering support, partnerships, and investments to help make the world of payments better for consumers, businesses, and communities. Agile fintechs can successfully build up attractive offerings, but we are aware that they need strong support in getting their solutions to market. This is where Visa expertise really comes in, helping newcomers to partner with established financial institutions to increase the chances of success”, added Jakub Kiwior, CEE Regional Managing Director, Visa.

By reuniting experts and representatives from regulatory bodies, banks and private fintech companies from all stages of development, the Unchain festival will also act as a would-be accelerator for the CEE’s region fintech innovation curve.

“Together with Visa and all the relevant experts in the financial and tech industry, we will shape the business landscape in payments, loans, insurance, personal finance, e-commerce, banking, and more.

We firmly believe that the regional unicorns we have so far have only just tapped into the big potential of the CEE. And, through Unchain Fintech Festival, we aim to grow not just the knowledge and networking of fintech representatives, but also help foster and facilitate the actual innovation and fintech growth of the CEE region,” stated Cosmin Cosma, Advisory Board Chairman of Unchain Fintech Festival.