Ozan Ozerk on the Future of Fintech: "Do Nothing, and You Donate Advantage to Your Fastest Competitor"

When Dr. Ozan Özerk took the stage at the Foreign Investors Annual Summit 2025 in Vilnius, the energy in the room matched the summit's racing-inspired theme. Hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce in Lithuania, the event brought together hundreds of business leaders, investors, and policymakers to discuss the country's position in an increasingly competitive global economy.

Ozan Özerk, a serial fintech entrepreneur and founder of multiple international financial institutions, opened his keynote with a simple observation: "The financial world isn't just evolving; it's accelerating. And the next lap will be won by those who can adapt fast enough."

His talk, "How Can Lithuanian Businesses Benefit from the Emerging Trends in Fintech?", mapped out the tectonic shifts taking place in financial technology across Europe and the United States - from real-time payments to open data and AI-driven automation.

In Europe, new rules are turning instant payments from an optional feature into a legal requirement. By late 2025, all euro transactions will need to clear in ten seconds or less, at no additional cost. Meanwhile, the upcoming Financial Data Access Regulation will expand data sharing far beyond bank accounts, and the European Digital Identity Wallet will allow people to verify and sign across borders in minutes.

Across the Atlantic, Dr. Özerk noted, the United States is finally catching up. The GENIUS Act has provided a national regulatory framework for stablecoins, and payment networks such as Visa and Stripe have begun settling transactions in digital currencies. Real-time payment systems, such as FedNow and RTP, are also scaling up, with limits increased to support large-value corporate transfers.
For businesses, he argued, these aren't distant trends. They're immediate opportunities. Over the next 12 months, Dr. Özerk urged companies to "switch on instant pay", adopt national digital identity systems, pilot consent-based data-sharing, and industrialise compliance for instant rails. "Doing nothing," he warned, "isn't neutral. It's giving your competitors a head start."

The conversation inevitably turned to artificial intelligence, which Dr. Özerk described as "a structural revolution, not a passing phase." He cited more than US$250 billion in global private investment last year and the European Union's €200 billion InvestAI initiative as proof that both governments and corporations are betting heavily on automation and intelligent workflows.

AI's rapid rise, however, comes with a caveat. "Build for tomorrow," he said, "but not at the expense of today. The businesses that survive technological waves are the ones that innovate while staying operationally grounded."

Dr. Özerk's keynote set a thoughtful tone at a summit focused on growth, innovation, and international collaboration. His message to the audience was as much about urgency as opportunity: the future of finance won't wait - and those who hesitate risk being overtaken by faster, more adaptive rivals.

Contact Person: Dr. Ozan Ozerk
Email: info@ozanozerk.com
Country: United Kingdom
Address: The Bower, 207-211 Old Street, London, England, EC1V 9NR, UK
Website: https://www.ozanozerk.com/

Dr. Ozan Özerk, born in Nicosia, Cyprus in 1979 and raised in Norway by academic parents specializing in education and learning disabilities, has built a remarkable career bridging medicine, technology, and finance. After serving as a Norwegian Armed Forces Ranger and completing medical school at the University of Oslo (2000-2008), he co-founded the pioneering social network Biip.no in 2005, which was acquired by Egmont and Nettavisen for over 100 million krone in 2008. Following years as an emergency room doctor until 2015, he pivoted to fintech, establishing a portfolio of successful ventures including OpenPayd (2018), a London-based Banking as a Service provider; EMBank (2018), a European Central Bank-licensed institution in Lithuania; Ozan SuperApp (2018), offering financial solutions across Europe and Turkey; Eurotrader (2018), a regulated retail broker; and Bitpace (rebranded from Lydiax in 2023), providing blockchain and crypto payment solutions globally. A Forbes Finance Council member since 2021, Dr. Özerk is recognized as a fintech pioneer and advocate for financial inclusion, frequently sharing his insights on the industry's future through interviews and opinion pieces.Retry

This release was published on openPR.