How fintech leaders can prepare before regulatory deadlines become urgent

Fintech companies face pressure from several directions: digital-asset regulation, finance-process change and selective funding. Executives at PayDo and Dost, alongside a partner at Clarity Global, describe different versions of the same management problem. Rules, finance processes and fundraising can require capabilities that take time to build.

Their views do not establish a market-wide rule. The overlap is narrower. PayDo focuses on governance and access to conventional finance, while Dost focuses on structured financial data and workflows. Clarity Global focuses on credibility in regulated markets and integration with the financial system. For CEOs and CTOs, this raises a planning question: which capabilities need to exist before an external deadline or financing event makes them urgent?

Crypto regulation makes governance an operating capability

The Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation creates authorisation requirements for European digital asset providers. Serhii Zakharov, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of PayDo, a regulated payment infrastructure provider, focuses on the organisational preparation involved. PayDo has a commercial interest in demand for regulated payment infrastructure, so its assessment should be read in that context.

Digital asset providers also depend on fiat settlement, meaning settlement in government-issued currencies, as well as liquidity management, anti-money laundering (AML) controls, treasury processes and payment infrastructure. These dependencies make governance and financial-system access operational issues for management teams.

For executives, the timing implication is concrete. Governance and controls take time to build, test and integrate into daily operations. Management teams can assess those dependencies before an authorisation process makes them urgent.

E-invoicing turns compliance into a data and process problem

Structured, machine-readable invoice data changes how information flows between accounting systems. For finance leaders, the quality of accounts-payable data and workflows becomes part of implementation readiness.

Adam Barbera, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Dost, focuses on the operational implications of structured invoicing.

The distinction between a PDF and structured invoice data matters operationally. A PDF can preserve a readable invoice while requiring a system or employee to extract its contents. Machine-readable invoicing represents individual fields in a defined structure that accounting systems can process directly. Readiness therefore extends into source data, workflows and system integration.

For a CFO or CTO, the practical assessment is straightforward. Manual rekeying, disconnected systems and poor source data create work when invoices need to move between systems as structured data. Auditing those dependencies can identify the scale of change before implementation becomes urgent.

Investors are rewarding some of the same capabilities

Capital markets provide a separate signal. Chloe Parker, Partner at Clarity Global, focuses on how fintech companies position their maturity, regulatory credibility and integration with the financial system when communicating with investors.

Clarity Global works with fintech clients and therefore has a commercial stake in how fintech companies position themselves and communicate with investors. Parker’s assessment should be read as an interested industry perspective.

This perspective overlaps with part of PayDo’s argument. Zakharov emphasises governance and access to conventional financial services. Parker focuses on credibility in regulated markets and integration into the financial system. Their stated views overlap on those points. Regulators and investors still make decisions under different criteria.

For management teams, that overlap creates a practical test. Work undertaken for regulation or financial-system integration can produce evidence relevant to investor scrutiny. Management can identify that evidence as capabilities are built, then test its relevance with individual investors.

Key takeaways for decision-makers

Build governance before deadlines make it urgent: Digital asset regulation makes governance, AML controls, treasury processes and access to fiat settlement operational priorities. Leaders should assess these dependencies before authorisation requirements create time pressure.
Prepare finance systems for structured invoice data: E-invoicing readiness depends on source data, workflows and system integration. CFOs and CTOs should identify manual rekeying, disconnected systems and data-quality gaps early.
Treat regulatory readiness as potential evidence for investors: Governance and financial-system integration may also support investor scrutiny, although regulatory and investment criteria differ. Leaders should document these capabilities as they develop and test their relevance with individual investors.