On Thursday September 25, 2025 We were privileged to participate in the fifth annual international fintech conference Slovak Financial Market and Innovation 2025organized by Národná banka Slovenska (NBS) in its congress hall in Bratislava.
The first keynote speech by Júlia Čillíková from NBS was followed by the first keynote lecture — “Prešľad o ciách v SR”, which was delivered by Daniel Ďuriač. In it he presented current developments and projects of Slovak fintech, with emphasis on:
- the importance of mobile applications as the main channel for financial services,
- digitization of processes,
- the growth of interest in digital mortgages and automated decision-making systems.
This was followed by a panel discussion entitled “Does the Slovak financial market have the courage and need to innovate? “Moderator Marek Feder and panelists from both banking and technology segments (e.g. Tatra banka, Crowdberry, Vacuumlabs, Generali) debated how to overcome barriers — technological, regulatory and cultural — that hinder the wider development of fintech in Slovakia.
The meeting was designed as a combination of strategic considerations and practical experience — participants could compare what works elsewhere and what could work in the Slovak context.
The lunch was followed by a section devoted to broader perspectives:
- Keynote Ondřej Machač's lecture on “The Current State of the Fintech Sector in the Czech Republic” offered a valuable parallel view of the Czech environment — concrete projects, challenges and opportunities that can inspire the Slovak market.
- In the subsequent panel discussion “Slovak Fintech: What can move us forward? “issues of legislation, regulation, fintech sandboxes, and international cooperation are thematically linked, whether within the framework of Czech-Slovak relations or at V4 and EU levels. Among the speakers were representatives of the Ministry of Finance, the NBS, the sandbox environment and also the Czech party (Česká Fintech Asociácia).
- The closing of the conference was carried out by Martin Budaj from the NBS side. nbs.sk
An important part of this section was the discussion about the involvement of a national strategy for fintech, how to align the regulatory framework with EU standards, and how countries like Slovakia and the Czech Republic can inspire each other and support their fintech ecosystem. In addition to Slovak and Czech, the networking was also possible to hear the English language.