Asters Law Firm is a partner of Open Banking Lab, the new incubation program for startups in the financial technologies sphere. The initiative has been launched by OTP Bank (one of the largest foreign banks in Ukraine) and 1991 Open Data Incubator (a non-profit incubator for open public data based IT projects) with the support of the National Bank of Ukraine.

Open Banking Lab is the first initiative in Ukraine aimed at promoting the open banking concept. Within this project 1991 Open Data Incubator will support the startups that develop open banking data based products. OTP Bank has become the general partner and the sponsor of the project. OTP Bank and the National Bank of Ukraine will provide an access to their open data and corporate API. Asters is the legal partner of the initiative, while Asters Partner Alexey Khomyakov will become one of the mentors for the incubation program participants.

"OTP Bank has offered its financial and organizational support to this project, because it reflects our mission – to serve as #1 bank for our clients by establishing high standards on the market and by being useful for the society in general. The development of advanced fintech startups that offer topical solutions for the bank, as well as the enhancement of the investment culture and entrepreneurship incentivizing are in line with our mission. We do hope that this initiative will result in helpful and competitive solutions from the incubator participants", – Lilia Lazepko, OTP Bank Board Member, points out.

"From now the open data standards are used not only by the state bodies, but also have the new corporate dimension. The corporate data are high quality, expensive and carefully collected. Within the Open Banking Lab project we offer to a startup community a possibility to work with these data",– says Denys Gursky,  СЕО of 1991 Open Data Incubator.

"Innovativeness is an engine of economic development in the modern world. As one of the leading Ukrainian law firms we are glad to support the incubation program for innovative projects Open Banking Lab, because it is aimed at increasing the customer service level in banking and at establishing the ground for the future financial industry of online services with large added value. By supporting the development of breakthrough technologies Asters assists the technological advancement of the new businesses that will for sure become the basis of the future economy in Ukraine", – Alexey Khomyakov, Asters' Partner, comments.

Open banking is the new standard in banking. Within this standard banks provide the third party developers an access to their open (non confidential) data and API. Developers get a possibility to use the bank's functionality and content in their own applications and platforms. The submission of applications to participate in the Open Banking Lab started on 27 September 2017. Learn more about the project and apply at http://1991.vc/otp/.

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Asters is a full-service independent national law firm that has maintained a strong presence in Ukraine since 1995. Asters has been acknowledged as the Law Firm of the Decade by Ukraine's Legal Awards 2016. The Firm is a two-time winner of the Law Firm of the Year: Ukraine and the CIS award (The Lawyer European Awards 2014 and 2015), Law Firm of the Year (Ukraine) award (Who's Who Legal Awards 2014), Law Firm of the Year award (Ukrainian Legal Awards 2014) and is also named No.1 law firm in Ukraine according to the 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 Top 50 Law Firms Annual National Ranking.

OTP Bank is one of the largest domestic banks, a recognized leader of Ukraine's financial sector. The bank provides a full spectrum of financial services to corporate and private clients, as well as to representatives of SME. Represented in the Ukrainian market since 1998, OTP Bank enjoys sound reputation for being socially responsible, reliable and sustainable financial institution providing its customers with services of European quality standards. OTP Bank Plc., the largest Hungarian bank, is the hundred-percent owner of OTP Bank. OTP Bank is a flagman ship of OTP banking group in Ukraine, which also includes OTP Capital and OTP Leasing companies.

1991 Open Data Incubator is Ukraine's first non-profit incubator for open public big data based IT projects. The incubator develops projects that are solving the national challenges in countries of Eastern Europe. The state bodies, businesses and civil society institutions are among partners of 1991. 1991 Open Data Incubator is a project incubation partner of Ivano Frankivsk and Dnipro urban communities withtin the USAID's DOBRE (Decentralization Offering Better Results And Efficiency) project and a partner of Open Data Challenge, the national contest of open data based startups.