Fintech Pair Finance is starting to go international. The first target market outside Germany is Austria. An experienced manager has been recruited to head the Austrian unit.

“Cooperation instead of confrontation with the debtor” best sums up Pair Finance’s AI and behavioural psychology-based technology-driven approach to debt collection. Minou Ghaffari, Head of Behavioral Science at Pair Finance, has already explained to us exactly how this works.

Austria as a strategic market

Entering the market in the neighbouring country seems obvious. Similar language and consumption patterns probably do not require any special adjustments to technology and processes. As Pair Finance emphasises in its press release on the expansion, it sees Austria as a strategic market for its business model. This is because trade there is currently undergoing a structural change driven by exponential technological development. This year, e-commerce in Austria will reach a new record level. And shopping via smartphone is showing enormous growth rates – the best prerequisites for digitally addressing defaulting customers.

In Germany, the company says it already has 300 companies working with the fintech, including Zalando, Home24, MyDays Jochen Schweizer and Sixt.

ING manager becomes country head

Barna Bokor will build up the Austrian unit as Country Head of Pair Finance Austria. He moves from the online bank ING Austria. There he headed the “Collections & Inheritance” department in the in-house “Center of Expertise”. Bokor, who has a degree in law and political science, brings with him more than nine years of experience in receivables management. His new office is located in the centre of Vienna.

Stephan Stricker, CEO and founder of Pair Finance, is full of praise for his new manager: “With Barna Bokor, we have an Austrian Country Manager in our ranks who knows the market from the start and will provide valuable impetus. With him and his team, we will continue our growth trajectory.”