Huawei unveils Digital Finance and Security Innovation Lab in Helsinki

Huawei Regional ecosystem development department, in cooperation with the company's research and development center in Finland, will open the Digital Finance and Security Innovation Laboratory (Fin ² Sec) at the end of September. In view of the rapidly increasing need for digitisation in the banking, financial and payment services sector in Europe, Huawei wants to work with experts from different sectors to promote the development of this sector and to meet customer requirements.

The Helsinki-based laboratory will also act as an incubator to discuss and develop ideas and programmes, as Huawei aims to create a base for technology, develop improved industry standards and develop products and services that are suitable to modern needs. The laboratory will also focus on supporting financial services, through innovative technology solutions, developing solutions that will improve customer experience and loyalty. The overarching objective of the laboratory is to introduce secure digital financial services and improvements in the payment process for each individual customer, household and organisation in order to promote healthy and accessible financial life.

In preparation for the opening of the digital financial and security innovation laboratory, Huawei's team, as the lender of the Helsinki-Ālto Cybersecurity Institute, is working closely with the University of Atlanta and has also called for European banks, financial technology companies and industry associations to be involved. The focus of the laboratory will be on the knowledge and future plans of these specialists, as well as their contribution to addressing the challenges that hamper progress.

“If we do not cooperate together for the purpose of strengthening the financial ecosystem, it will be difficult for users to provide secure digital services and products so that they can easily access them; particularly for people who know little about digitisation or do not trust it,” reports Huawei Consumer Business Group Central and Eastern Europe, Nordic and Turkish Financial Ecosystems. Director of Development and Partnership and one of the architects of the Innovation Laboratory, Adam Rybusiewicz. “The aim of the laboratory is not only to generate new ideas, but also to share experience and challenges, and to promote the development of advanced initiatives or business models that could be incorporated into the financial, banking and payment sectors.”

Huawei has previously made public similar projects focusing on improving security, which have served as the basis for developing significant innovations. For example, Huawei's Digital Car Key feature is an app for close-field communications (NFC) that allows drivers to lock or unlock a car and start it with a smartphone ¹.

“Huawei Finnish research and development department has been working on consumer device safety issues for nearly a decade, and the developed reliable hardware-supported environmental solutions are today hosting or supporting critical security services such as Huawei Pay, WeChat Pay, car keys and authentication solutions on Huawei mobile phones. Together with partners from the university, we want to share knowledge and promote the deployment of security capabilities for our devices in the Fin ² Sec ecosystem,” says Dr Jan-Erik Ekberg, head of the Huawei Helsinki System Security Lab (HSSL), which Huawei is responsible for research and development of platform security, particularly in consumer devices..

Opening ceremony

The laboratory will be opened at a formal ceremony on 28 September in Helsinki (Finland). During the morning session, representatives will be invited to participate in presentations, but will be able to visit the innovation laboratory by day.

In a move that takes place all day, Huawei and the stakeholders involved will present a number of the most significant security and privacy challenges in the financial sector and will discuss the latest industry trends in digital banking, payments and open banking activities. The banking activities and financial actors will also target the main problematic customer aspects for which the Fin ² Sec laboratory intends to focus in cooperation with the participants.

For more information about the Digital Finance and Security Innovation Lab, type to the fin2seclab@huawei.com email address.

Notes to the editor

¹ how to turn your Huawei phone into a digital car key: https://consumer.huawei.com/uk/support/article/en-gb00929431 /

The information was prepared by Inese Šuļžanoka, head of communications for Huawei Technologies Latvia. Publicity photo.