Member Spotlight - FinXP CEO: “We are big believers in the crypto industry”

Jens Podewski, CEO and co-founder of FinXP, talks about the payment provider’s plans for the future and highlights a growing appetite for crypto business.

For those that don’t know FinXP, can you provide some background on the company?

FinXP is a payments and banking service provider founded in 2014. We are licensed as an electronic money institution by the Malta Financial Services Authority, and our licence has been passported throughout the EU and the EEA. We offer a range of products including IBAN accounts, a payment gateway with 350+ payment methods, SEPA Direct Debit and SEPA Credit Transfer processing, a B2B2C payments solution, expert payment consultancy services and more.

Can you share a little-known fact about FinXP?We are big believers in the crypto industry. We believe that increased usage of cryptocurrencies will be one of the trends that we’ll be seeing in the near future. At FinXP, we work with several innovative crypto-related companies such as crypto exchanges, an ATM company that allows people to buy cryptocurrencies and also companies that help online merchants accept crypto payments. The crypto world is very exciting, and we’re proud to be one of the companies backing this industry that’s still in its early stages.What are you currently working on and what are your company’s plans and strategic priorities for the coming years?In the coming months and years, we want to continue to grow the list of reputable and established clients and partners that we work with, and we want to continue to grow our transaction volume. Compared to previous years, as a company we’re now focusing more on marketing and product development. Even though our product portfolio is already quite well developed, just this year we are launching another three to four payment solutions. These will continue to help establish us as a one-stop-shop for business payment services.Are there any projects/achievements of your company that you are exceptionally proud of?Almost two years ago, we launched IBAN4U, which is our Euro IBAN payment account service for businesses. We have seen a lot of interest in this service, which is powered by Oracle Flexcube, a leading core banking system. The fact that companies can open an account with us in just a few days by filling in our forms online has been a breath of fresh air for clients. Furthermore, our thorough compliance culture and the 100% deposit protection that we offer provides our clients with much-valued peace of mind. This is not something that can be taken for granted in the payment and banking sectors.Closer to the present, we are in the process of launching Real-Time Payments, an account-to-account payment method that provides merchants with significant benefits such as very competitive transaction fees, no chargebacks, low risk of fraud, a high-level of security, and importantly, instant debiting of the customer’s account. We believe this is going to be received very well across several online industries.What in your opinion makes Malta an effective jurisdiction to set up a business?From our experience, there are many advantages to being based in Malta. The fact that we can find competent, English-speaking staff here in Malta is important, the local lifestyle and weather are very attractive, the regulator is pro-active, the government is business-friendly, the business culture in general is one that is easy to work with – these are all important advantages to being based here.What kind of people/companies in the financial services community would you want to connect with?We are looking forward to connecting with accountants, legal firms and corporate service providers. We already work with several such companies as there is significant opportunity for mutually beneficial partnerships.Bio:Jens Podewski is the CEO and co-founder of FinXP. He is an experienced executive and entrepreneur and a specialist in the international credit card market and other payment processes. As a banker, Jens Podewski has over 25 years of experience in the financial sector having worked as the Head of Trade Finance for the Otto Group’s financial arm for 15 years, before gaining further experience in the fast-moving iGaming industry.If you are a FinanceMalta member and would like to be profiled in our member spotlight, please send an email to content@financemalta.org.