Ryta Zasiekina, Founder of CONCRYT, speaks to us about redefining payment infrastructure, building digital sovereignty in Europe and the future of cross-border finance in a multipolar world.

Can you tell us a bit about your background and what led you to found CONCRYT, particularly with its focus on digital finance and payment infrastructure?

I have spent a decade in the payments and banking industry and held multiple leadership roles, including consulting and CEO positions. I specialise in general e-commerce, FinTech business consulting, payment processing, alternative payment methods, risk management and anti-fraud.

My background bridges the intersection of emerging technologies, regulation and financial infrastructure. The reason I founded CONCRYT was because I saw a widening gap between the pace

of FinTech innovation and the practical realities of operating within legacy systems, particularly for cross-border transactions. CONCRYT has been created to help merchants across all sectors make quantifiable impacts in the online space, by combining unrivalled sector knowledge and experience to create a sustainable, mature, efficient global payments business. Our work is built around helping financial institutions, PSPs and FinTechs navigate complexity, manage risk and create compliant, scalable infrastructure.

Our focus has always been to support a more transparent, sovereign and inclusive financial ecosystem. And that starts with rethinking the foundations: how value moves, who controls it and how infrastructure can be designed to serve the many, not just the few.

Your recent comments highlight the growing tension between global payment systems and USdominated infrastructure. From your perspective, how have US tariffs accelerated the need for digital and regulatory sovereignty in Europe?

The latest wave of tariffs and the rollback of the de minimis exemption underscore just how vulnerable global commerce is to policy shifts. When a single jurisdiction holds disproportionate control over payment networks, clearing mechanisms, and reserve currencies, the rest of the world becomes exposed to decisions it cannot influence.

Europe’ s growing dependence on USdominated card schemes and banking rails has been highlighted by recent turbulence. For European PSPs and merchants, this is about cost, control, stability and autonomy. We’ re now seeing

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