Paysera's Board of Directors has appointed Gintautas Mezetis as the company's new CEO as of February 1.
One of the key challenges for the new CEO is the seamless expansion of Paysera into the banking business. The Bank of Lithuania approved the appointment of the new Paysera CEO in December.
"Paysera is a rapidly growing, profitable, and self-funded company. One of my main challenges after joining Paysera is to expand the company's business into the realms of super apps and banking. Having joined Paysera from the public sector, I am well aware of the government's requirements, and therefore I will personally strive for a seamless and fully collaborative expansion, respecting all legal and regulatory requirements.", - says G. Mezetis.
Paysera has applied for a specialized bank license in Lithuania, and the bank’s legal name will be Paysera Bank, UAB. The Lithuanian and European Central Banks' decision on the licence of the new bank is expected in the first half of 2022. Eight months have passed since the application was submitted.
"Increased competition between banks is a precondition for lower fees for customers and an incentive for the market as a whole to improve. Thus, the growing number of banks is a positive sign for businesses interested in finance, and for depositors who are looking for at least partial protection against the depreciation of their money," says G. Mezetis.
Prior to joining Paysera, Gintautas spent the last two years as head of the Information Society Development Committee. Under his leadership, the Lithuanian Open Data Portal, the State IT Service Management Information System, and the State IT Consolidated Cloud Infrastructure were launched. In addition, an authentication service was introduced through the E-Government Gateway, which laid the basis for the registration system for the COVID-19 vaccination. G. Mezetis holds a degree in Physics and Economics from Vilnius University and also studied International Marketing at Uppsala University (Sweden).
He succeeded Žydrūnė Putelytė, who had been acting as interim CEO and will continue as deputy CEO. She had taken over the company's reins during the transition period following the resignation of Vytenis Morkūnas in September, who had been in charge for four years.
According to unaudited data, Paysera LT revenue in 2021 was 13.2 million EUR, and unaudited net profit was 2.1 million EUR. In 2021, customers spent nearly 600 million EUR in Paysera-operated e-shops, similar to the previous year. Last year, customers transferred 6.5 billion EUR through the Paysera app and online banking, which is 38% more than the year before.