There has been a rapid increase in the size and number of investments into UK fintechs with the likes of Monzo and Revolut leading the charge. Interestingly, it is not just the VC funds driving this; banks are also investing or in many cases, acquiring fintech companies outright.
The Great Recession produced a number of aftershocks, including a tidal wave of regulations (with the?) intent on preventing the same event from ever happening again. A mismatch between increasingly complex and detailed international standards and ever more uneven implementation by national authorities ensued. Consistent, harmonized adoption of financial standards by all involved is necessary to ensure smooth global processes. Some suggestions are presented in this article.
Open Banking, which allows third parties to build applications around the activities of established banks, is curtailing the way banks have always functioned. The tried-and-true vertical-integration model, through which a bank maintains a firm grip on all of its operations, is being replaced by a more cooperative approach. How will innovative banks fulfill their roles as suppliers, producers and retailers of financial products and services in the Open Banking era?
The trend toward global interconnectedness has never been stronger, with innovation and technology helping to make the impossible now possible. The rewards are vast in terms of reduced cost, increased opportunity and greater inclusion, but there is an obstacle that is slowing progress: existing proprietary banking infrastructure. Fortunately, that’s not the end of the story, as the way is being paved for full worldwide banking integration.
Getting regulatory compliance right is a necessity for financial institutions today, because getting it wrong is a punishingly expensive mistake. Just as fintech has been rapidly embraced by the industry due to its many proven benefits, the new kid on the technology block, regtech, is set to blaze its own innovation trail, disrupting the old ways of doing things in a bid to cut costs.
In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, it became clear that banking resolution was one of the key aspects of the necessary reform of financial regulation, with the objective of reducing the cost of banking crises and avoiding the use of taxpayers’ money. In the case of global banks, the cross-border dimension added a new layer of complexity to these debates.