Fintech News Issue #155 February 15th, 2018

Brandon Krieg, co-founder and CEO of StashInvest, explains his company's mission to make investing comfortable and "frictionless" for anyone -- even those with little money. Also on the show: Travis Dulaney, CEO of Push Payments, shares why 2018 will be a big year for faster payments in the U.S.

In this week's news show Simon and Jason are joined by 11:FS NED Chris Skinner, Tanya Andreasyan, Editor at Banking Technology; Kristian Luoma - Head of OP Lab, in town from Helsinki for one night only and Cliff Evans, Head of Digital Banking at Capgemini, to take on the week’s top stories.

The 2018 study revealed some “warning signs” — things senior bank and credit union execs are worried about, and some things they might not be worried about enough.

Two spheres cohabit within every society or group within societies: the Sacred, and the profane. The sacred sphere, being esoteric, wields control over mysterious powers, only accessed and enjoyed by the initiated.

I am an immigrant. I know the palatable word is expat, given my education and career, but I don’t like whitewashing.

While crypto hogs the headlines, technology is disrupting the $8.5 trillion (market cap) U.S. financial services industry in less flashy ways, changing how we invest, borrow and save; how big banks control risk; and how hedge funds analyze data and place their bets.

Quarterly analysis of global investment trends in the fintech sector.

The decentralized age, enabled by cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, is coming fast. We are witnessing the wholesale reinvention of the world’s financial system. When all is said and done, it is going to be fairer, more democratic, and will empower billions of people.

Headlines around regulatory breaches and fines have been infrequent over the last couple of years. This is partly because regulators are starting to feel more comfortable with capitalised banks. The rise of the Regtech ecosystem has also helped as some regulators have started to actively engage with innovation that helps regulatory compliance.

Over the last ten years it has become increasingly possible to turn bright technology ideas into smooth, working, scalable solutions.

While most traditional banks and credit unions realize the inefficiency and bad consumer experience created by legacy lending solutions, few have automated more than the application step. Even in those cases, the process is not simple or fast, resulting in prospect borrower abandonment.

Piraeus Bank was the first Greek bank to launch a fully automated e-branch that combined the best of high tech with the warmth of high touch. With a focus on consumer education, expanded accessibility and intuitive engagement, transaction costs have been reduced while the customer experience has been improved.

Chatbot natural language processing (NLP), the AI part that converts human language into machine instruction, has reached a tipping point. It has progressed beyond just an understanding of the questions/commands to also understanding the tone in which they are given. This poses the interesting ethical and moral question - should a chatbot tolerate bad language/abuse?

Sure, there were white papers, prototypes and theories, but in the land of ICOs, 2017 was largely about one thing – money – and lots of it.