Last December, AllianceBlock, along with 5 other startups made it to the second batch of innovative companies selected by Finlab Portugal. And on July 9th, our cofounder, Matthijs de Vries, attended the closing event in Lisbon.
Finlab Portugal is the place where the Portuguese financial regulators meet and embrace innovative fintech startups. In its aim to become a new fintech hub and be a front runner with regards to financial regulation in Europe, and during the six months of the program, the Portuguese regulator along government authorities and institutions have created a channel to discuss regulations and legislations while helping a select few startups.
FinLab Portugal is inspired by the best practices of innovation hubs and sandboxes around the world. However, FinLab Portugal has one distinguishing factor: it joins all the financial regulators in Portugal in one innovation hub, something not seen elsewhere in Europe.
Finlab Portugal started as a partnership between the Central Bank of Portugal (BdP), Portuguese Regulator (CMVM), Authority for the supervision of the insurance and pension fund industries (ASF) and Portugal Fintech. Through Portugal FinLab, AllianceBlock gave their inputs into future regulations regarding STOs and received an opinion on various European regulatory issues which were then built into AllianceBlock’s roadmap.
“Financial innovation is an inevitability that, as regulators, we have the duty to follow up with consolidated and robust levels of preparation, recognizing the added value of these projects,” said CMVM Chairperson Gabriela Figueiredo Dias earlier on.
While our cofounder Dr Amber Ghaddar said: “Working hand in hand with the various actors of the Portuguese financial sector was a great opportunity to give our input to, and share our thoughts with an innovative European regulator. There are many new regulations and legislations that will be voted by not only the regulators but also the European Commission and will shape the future of blockchain in Europe. And similar to what we’re doing in the UK, being able to discuss and shape these regulations and legislations before implementation is of utmost importance for the continuous development, adoption and progression of blockchain in the financial sector.”
“The completion of the track is not the end of the road for AllianceBlock and Portugal” said our cofounder Matthijs de Vries, “ and we are looking forward to continue this conversation. Portugal has a lot to offer and the Portuguese regulator has the opportunity to turn the country into a new fintech hub. And AllianceBlock wants to be part of it.”
To learn more about AllianceBlock, join us on:
- Telegram: https://t.me/allianceblock
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/allianceblock
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzsfjvEv3qOfTJtG4RNAW3A
To download Portugal Finlab report 2019 click here
