The Bulgarian fintech sector is in a good shape and the number of consumers is constantly growing, representatives of the Bulgarian Fintech Association said at a meeting with journalists. EasyPay, which provides services for one-stop-shop payment of bills, is planning to install ATMs; Paysera will try to popularize a new payment method; and iuvo and Klear, which offer b2b loans and deposit-like products, are preparing higher returns and new products.
ATMs
"Nearly 407,000 consumers receive full information about their accounts on Viber," EasyPay CEO Georgi Marinov said. The company has already issued more than 200,000 pre-paid cards, which will be connected with consumers' accounts in future. It also plans to install some 80 ATMs countrywide, so that users can withdraw and deposit money, using pre-paid debit cards. The services will target small companies.
"We have always tried to provide services that are in-demand and easily accessible. Unfortunately, the regulations in recent years have made the sector more conservative," Marinov commented. The pre-paid cards are issued at EasyPay offices. There are no issuance and maintenance fees and customers can have two free ATM withdrawals monthly.
Online service
Paysera in turn stakes on technological development. The company, which has processed payments worth more than 600 million levs (300 million euro) since the beginning of the year, believes that initiated payments will be the next fast developing technology in the sector. Initiated payments based on open banking increased more than 30% in the first half of 2023, year on year, Paysera data show. The service allows customers to make a direct payment from a bank account or a digital portfolio without entering credit or debit card data. "Initiated payments have the potential to turn into an alternative to online card payments due to their high security level and better terms for retailers," CEO Filip Mutafis comments.
Borrowing and lending
Iuvo CEO Blagovest Karadzhov is also satisfied with the first-half results. Founded in 2016, the peer-to-per (P2P) platform for credits and deposits is part of MFG. The company has attracted a total amount of 390 million euro from 40,000 investors, providing an average annual return of 9.2%.
The product connects borrowers with non-banking credit institutions, which offer terms depending on the customer's profile. Besides borrowing, customers can also lend money for interest. The company is planning to launch a product related to mortgage lending in the near future.
Buy now, pay later
Boris Ilinov, financial manager at Klear, believes that financing solutions in Bulgaria remain expensive with an average annual cost of about 23%. What the P2P platform offers is buy now, pay later (in installments) solutions. Since the beginning of the year more than 500,000 euro has been invested in the fintech company, up 40% year on year.
Consumer loans are becoming increasingly expensive and banks traditionally offer floating interest rates. "Klear in turn offers a fixed interest rate for the whole term of the loan," Ilinov said, adding that the average annual cost is 10% to 14%. With the hike in inflation and banks keeping deposit interest rates low, people have switched to alternative investments.
The Bulgarian fintech sector is in a good shape and the number of consumers is constantly growing, representatives of the Bulgarian Fintech Association said at a meeting with journalists. EasyPay, which provides services for one-stop-shop payment of bills, is planning to install ATMs; Paysera will try to popularize a new payment method; and iuvo and Klear, which offer b2b loans and deposit-like products, are preparing higher returns and new products.
