The United States has reached a critical point in determining data privacy standards. With mounting concern among all stakeholders, it is no longer a question of whether more privacy laws will be enacted, but how—and specifically, whether the problem will be resolved at the state or national level.
Competition is intensifying in the banking sector, with fintech start-ups, technology giants and social-media leaders targeting various parts of the financial-services profit pool.
Cobalt, that versatile ferromagnetic metal, has experienced its own evolution; no longer used just to provide blue colour for glass and ceramics, it is today highly valued as a necessary ingredient for making those prized electric-car and smartphone batteries tick. Cobalt has seen its price rise and fall over recent years, but the current trend is in an upward direction as demand outpaces supply.
2017 has been a good year for US stock-market indices, in large measure due to the staggering performances of the Big Five of the technology sector, which are hitting levels not seen since the dotcom boom 20 years ago. Characterized by unmatched success in such areas as platform strength, innovation reinvestment, acquisitions and talent attraction, these technology giants seem guaranteed to keep on winning.
“Plan for radical change, or prepare for obsolescence” was the recent message from former Apple CEO John Sculley in reference to the banking sector’s latest digital innovation: the chatbot. As part of the ongoing fintech revolution, mobile-messaging applications are now being adopted around the world at an astronomical rate.
In the United States, the average car spends 96 percent of its time parked on a parking space or in a garage. The rest of the world isn’t much better. Yet, regardless of all those cars just sitting and doing nothing, it is reported that 1.2 million people are killed in road accidents per year worldwide.
With the number of reports suggesting that fintechs are bad news for banks, it may come as a surprise, that the opposite is in fact true. Fintechs may actually be the best thing to happen to traditional banks and the banking sector for a long time. No, really.