Latvia's Regulator is Ahead of its Labour Market

An interview with Anastasia Zencika by Sean Murphy

Every crypto firm currently drafting its MiCA application in Riga is looking for the same person. A Money Laundering Reporting Officer, fluent in Latvian, resident in the country, with the kind of CV that can withstand regulatory scrutiny. The role has become the single most sought-after compliance hire in the Baltic fintech market, and there are not nearly enough people to fill it.

Anastasia, founder of Evotym, a Riga-headquartered recruitment agency specialising in fintech, has watched the demand for MLROs compress into something close to a siege. Her firm works across London, Barcelona, Cyprus and Amsterdam, and Latvia is where the supply-demand imbalance is now sharpest. The reason is straightforward enough: the Latvian central bank has become one of the more approachable regulators in the EU for crypto-asset service providers seeking MiCA authorisation, and every applicant needs a locally registered compliance lead. The regulator is efficient but the talent market, not so much.

Anastasia has seen this pattern before, just across the border. Lithuania went through a comparable phase when its central bank began issuing electronic money institution licences at scale from around 2018 onwards. The shortages at the time were acute, salaries rose sharply, and compliance officers moved between firms every six to twelve months. Several years on, Lithuania now has what she calls a deep pool of fintech talent, developed in lockstep with the industry's own growth. Latvia, she argues, is simply at the start of the same curve.

The question of whether the Bank of Latvia will eventually accept a broader definition of locally based compliance competence remains open, and it is one of the quieter but 

more consequential questions in the market. A flexible regulator can unlock growth in a way that recruitment alone cannot.

Cost is part of the appeal of Riga as a fintech base. Compared with London or Amsterdam, salaries for equivalent engineering and operational back office roles in Latvia can be close to half when compared to Western Europe, and the market is known for the quality of its graduates. Anastasia, who spent nearly a decade in the payments industry before moving into recruitment, speaks with a certain practicality about this: Latvian candidates are direct, hardworking, and not easily distracted by the more theatrical aspects of the fintech sector. 

The Baltic talent story sits within a wider European shortage. ACAMS' 2025 Global AFC Threats Report found half of compliance respondents cite a lack of skilled resources as a high or very high risk. The Baltic version of  the problem is no different than the problem faced in other jurisdictions, concentrated into a smaller labour pool.

What Evotym is watching closely, alongside its clients, is how the momentum around Latvia 

translates into long-term ecosystem-building. Anastasia notes that at an Unblock-hosted event in Poland earlier in the year, Latvia came up in almost every conversation. That recognition is a new phenomenon, and it is one the Bank of Latvia has actively cultivated. The investment agency has been making approaches overseas, including in Canada and the wider EU, and founders are responding. 

The question for the next few years is whether Latvia becomes a structural fintech hub or a transitional one. Lithuania made the transition by pairing regulatory openness with sustained talent development. Latvia is further behind on the second part than the first. Anastasia's own forecast is optimistic: the growth of licensed firms will pull the talent market up with it, provided the regulator continues to set a tempo the industry can match.