INAUGURAL GTR CEE KICKS OFF IN VIENNA WITH ITFA’s SUPPORT – October 2024

Written by Maria Mogilnaya, CEE Regional Committee Member

What do a predictive risk and digital lending enthusiast, a financial crime fighter and an SME finance expert have in common?

They were among the start-ups/scale-ups pitching during the fintech/regtech showcase session at the inaugural GTR CEE, held in Vienna on 8 October 2024.

This region has so much to offer in the fintech and regtech space, and I was proud to moderate the post-pitch fireside chat with three dynamic founders: Juraj Kralik (Widen), Taavi Tamkivi (Salv) and Cristian Ionescu (Instant Factoring). With their impressive track records and successful ventures, they offered a glimpse into the exciting opportunities for bank-fintech and bank-regtech collaboration across CEE and beyond.

GTR assembled a fantastic speaker lineup, including our very own Elitza Kavrakova from Raiffeisen Bank International, and drew a 150+ strong crowd – despite the rainy weather! Key discussions centred around compliance, SME access to trade finance, and export finance support for Ukraine amidst changing supply chains. For more information about the event and this year’s programme, please see here.

Several ITFA members were present, including representatives from Atradius, BasisBank, Converse Bank, DenizBank International, Deutsche Bank, CargoX, NLB, Raiffeisen Bank International, Stenn International, Tysers, VakifBank International, and WTW among others.

We look forward to collaborating with GTR again next year, should they decide to make this CEE-focused event a regular fixture in their calendar.