My Journey in Fintech

Sergey Salpanov completed his law degree at the Russian Academy of Justice in 2010, specializing in civil and international law. His dream was to become a lawyer and specialize in banking and corporate law.

During his studies, he combined theory and practice at Citibank, where he gained his first banking experience and learnt about the banking business from a front office perspective. It was here that he discovered his negotiating skills and his love of details and commercial processes.

Later, as he became more and more exposed to the day-to-day banking business and corporate structure, he decided to pursue his career via a commercial route. He actively learnt investment law and learnt how to work with shares and securities on the stock exchange. In 2010, Sergey Salpanov decided to start his full-time career at the Anelik payment system in the international department. Here he was given the opportunity to build and maintain relationships with partners worldwide and communicate skilfully. He made a career and was promoted to deputy head of department. In this position, he supported the head of department and the company management in developing the payment system, building and maintaining international business relationships.

Sergey Salpanov chose to work in payment systems because he has a passion for geography and communicating with other nationalities and the opportunity to use his knowledge from his first banking experience at Citibank and his knowledge of international law in this field. Since school Sergey has loved geography and studied with interest all the information about each country on each continent, the history, economic background of each country, demographics, population and national composition. As the remittance business goes hand in hand with the deep knowledge of people's needs, their hardships and problems, the sending and receiving countries, the political conditions and the economic context, the puzzle of an interest, his preferences and knowledge and the needs of the market fitted together perfectly.

In addition, Sergey knew all the challenges of a migrant from his own experience and was able to incorporate these into his business idea.

Participation in the establishment and development of a subsidiary in the UK - PayDek (legal name: DEK-CO UK Ltd). Since 2011, signed agreements with more than 50 countries and helped launch the project. Thanks to his entrepreneurial spirit, Sergey was able to easily work in a start-up project and put all his energy into developing the project from scratch. By the way, PayDek is still a successful fintech company today, growing every year even with new owners,

Sergey Salpanov has built up a strong network of banking partners who work with money transfers. Since the beginning of 2010, Sergey Salpanov has built a strong reputation in the remittance industry. In 2018, he decided that it would be better for his future career to move to the centre of the fintech business, right in the European Union. He worked as a consultant for several clients - renowned payment institutions in Europe. In the process, he came to the conclusion that he wanted to build his own business, do things right from the start, respond to the needs of the market, support the customers and mutually benefit from it, instead of watching from the side as the ideas and advice are implemented or rejected and having no influence on the implementation and success.

In 2020, he bought a then dormant company with no significant income and renamed it Swiss Remit. In 2021, the company applied for and received a license to operate as a financial intermediary. Within three years, the company was restructured, trimmed for efficiency and developed from a start-up with an interesting idea into one of the local Swiss market leaders. 

Today, Swiss Remit AG is one of the strongest local providers of money transfer and exchange services with a growing network of agents and four branches in Zurich, Basel, Lausanne and Geneva. Swiss Remit offers its customers the opportunity to send money to relatives and friends in over 150 countries worldwide. Although the company is experiencing significant growth and therefore requires immense investment, the team led by Sergey has managed to make the company profitable in 2022. Since then, the company has grown rapidly for the third year in a row. The key to success is the team that Sergey has successfully assembled, a team of professionals with decades of experience, expertise and a track record of dedication, hard work and success, but not least open to new ideas and flexible to meet the ever-changing demands of the market. 

Swiss Remit AG is focusing on the development of Africa, South America and Asia and has founded several subsidiaries in Europe and abroad. The subsidiaries are currently in the process of applying for licences.

Sergey Salpanov believes in the digital future. For this reason, Swiss Remit AG is investing resources in the online money transfer platform, the online remittance platform and various digital offline solutions. The goal for 2025 is to offer the Swiss market an innovative type of self-service terminal that provides round-the-clock service and combines the advantages of online and offline service.