The pandemic has prompted financial institutions to adapt fast, but the UK’s financial sector was already embroiled in a Brexit-induced metamorphosis. Although crises spawn revolutionary transformations, the sector’s need to transform digitally and accommodate regulations was in place beforehand. COVID-19 shifts the goalposts while offering opportunities for Britain’s fintechs to use their new-found freedom to innovate their way into a more prosperous future in which clients’ evolving needs are met.
FCA
Mainframe computers have enabled banks to manage huge amounts of financial data for nearly 70 years, but these legacy systems are today proving to be hindrances to progress. Lean fintechs are taking full advantage of today’s ground-breaking, agile technology, while established banks are struggling to transform their bedrock digital infrastructure for the new world. How are banks migrating to cutting-edge systems that will maintain them on their industry’s frontlines?
Next year, investment firms in the European Union will be confronted by a new prudential regime, courtesy of the European Commission, that is so sweeping, it could cause some to rethink what client activities they engage in. Now is the time, for smaller firms, to take a close look at their operations under the light of the regulations and begin to prepare.
The last financial crisis demanded a response, and that response was regulation…and more regulation, to such an extent that financial institutions are scurrying to hire additional compliance staff to try to make sense of it all. Fortunately technology has come to the rescue once again by spawning regtech, which is evolving to better manage the formidable challenges created by regulatory change.
Shouldn’t customers in Europe be “all in” for Open Banking, which promises to give them control over their data and open the door to much improved financial products and services? Instead, customers have been slow to embrace the Open era, fearing their data may be compromised. Financial services providers have their work cut out to persuade customers to cross this new frontier.
With the fourth EU Directive on Money Laundering coming into force in June this year and instances of financial crime becoming increasingly frequent, it is more crucial than ever for teams within Financial Institutions (FIs), as well as across the industry, to collaborate to tackle financial crime and fraud.
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.