Fintech in Lisbon: a hub, three supervisors and MB WAY

Portugal Fintech describes Fintech House as its physical incubator in Lisbon for fintech, and the association publishes the Portugal Fintech Report each year. Fintech House sits at SITIO in Lisbon, according to Essential Business. Its SPRINT accelerator runs for five months for early-stage fintechs and insurtechs, and its community counts more than 120 Portuguese and international fintechs.

The city adds its own program. Unicorn Factory Lisboa has supported more than 820 startups, and the European Commission named Lisbon European Capital of Innovation in 2023, as Zinancial notes.

Portugal splits financial supervision by sector. Banco de Portugal supervises banks, payment institutions and e-money institutions, the securities commission CMVM supervises markets and investment services, and ASF supervises insurers and pension funds.

Portugal FinLab joins them in one channel. The three authorities organize it together; a selected project presents its regulatory questions at a pitch day and receives a single report with each authority's independent remarks on how to operate within Portuguese law. FinLab has run seven editions. It is an innovation hub and grants no license, so a project applies for authorization through the normal route afterward. In Germany one supervisor, BaFin, covers all three sectors and answers fintech questions through its own contact point, as described at regulatory sandbox.

MB WAY is the mobile payment app of the Portuguese payment processor SIBS. Since March 2025 it has been interoperable with Bizum in Spain and Bancomat in Italy, which reaches more than 50 million users in Italy, Portugal, Spain and Andorra, according to Bancomat. Together with Vipps MobilePay the three apps form the EuroPA alliance.

EuroPA and EPI Company, the operator of Wero, announced a cooperation to connect their solutions for payments between people and payments to merchants, online and in stores, initially across 15 European countries. The five partners have since formed a joint venture, the European Network for Payments, based in Madrid, which runs a common interoperability hub; each app keeps its brand, and the network covers 130 million customers in 13 countries, according to Börsen-Zeitung (in German). Once the hub runs, a German Wero user can pay a Portuguese merchant that accepts MB WAY. Finance Loop covers the German side at Wero in Germany and the instant payment rails underneath at instant payments in Europe.

Portugal implemented MiCA through Law 69/2025 of December 22, which names Banco de Portugal and the CMVM as the competent authorities, according to Cuatrecasas. A crypto-asset service provider authorized in Portugal passports into Germany like one authorized by BaFin, covered at the CASP license and MiCA in Europe.

Portugal taxes gains on crypto held for less than 365 days at 28 percent and exempts longer holdings under conditions, as set out at crypto tax in Portugal, which also links the German rules.

Web Summit takes place in Lisbon every November. Fintech Meetup, a meetings-based fintech event that started in the United States, held its first European edition in Lisbon and has announced Paris for the next one, according to Fintech Meetup Europe. Its format is pre-scheduled meetings between banks, fintechs and merchants.

Finance Loop lists the fintech conferences of the year at fintech conferences.

Three authorities, split by sector. Banco de Portugal supervises banks, payment institutions and e-money institutions, the CMVM supervises securities markets and investment services, and ASF supervises insurers and pension funds. Under Law 69/2025, Banco de Portugal and the CMVM are the competent authorities for crypto-asset service providers under MiCA. The three authorities run Portugal FinLab together.

A channel between fintech founders and the three Portuguese financial supervisors, Banco de Portugal, the CMVM and ASF. Selected projects present their regulatory questions at a pitch day and receive one report with each authority's remarks on how to operate within Portuguese law. It grants no license.

Not through Wero yet. MB WAY works with Bizum in Spain and Bancomat in Italy, and the EuroPA alliance and EPI Company, which runs Wero, have formed a joint venture, the European Network for Payments, to connect their apps through a common hub. Payments between MB WAY and Wero users start once that hub is live.