Fintech News Issue #85 September 14th, 2016

Faisal Khan on why financial regulators need to accept the reality (and usefulness) of bitcoin for money transfer and remittances.

Chris Skinner argues that a bank is just a technology company trying to keep up in an ultra-connected world.

Young fintech companies are facing a harsh new reality. After years of unbounded growth fueled by billions in venture capital, the market dynamics that made it all possible have changed.

I posted an oped on the shadow banking economy and the new American dream in Yahoo Finance a few weeks back. Most exciting part didn’t fit though. Who is going to break the old banking traditions and how?

Mobile payments are the gateway for financial inclusion and economic growth in Latin America. To enhance adoption, there needs to be an increased focus on communicating the value proposition to the customer by developing suitable features and attractive user experiences. Mayfair Hotel, 3000 Florida Ave, Miami, USA

MRC Vienna connects the top fraud, payments and risk experts from around the globe to learn, share, create and network unlike any other European event. Focused exclusively on merchants, attendees have the opportunity to participate in panel discussions, general sessions, networking events and so much more. Join the MRC now and receive 1 year of membership and 2 registrations to Vienna for just €1999. At Hilton Vienna Danube Waterfront Hotel, Vienna , Austria

A report listing the 40 hottest fintech startups in Europe after a close examination of 200 fintech startups founded in 2015 and 2016. Also included: Europe’s leading startup hubs and the results of a Brexit survey. Get an exclusive 20% discount using the code FTWEEKLY

There has a lot of talk about Uber moment for FinTech. Or how disruptive Uber is. Yes, it is, but to more original, I would like to discuss a different parallel – a Netflix moment for FinTech. The streaming company has a winning model and is quickly catching up with its incumbent rival – HBO.

5,300 Wells Fargo employees have been caught faking customer account openings in order to hit their sales targets. That sounds pretty disgusting doesn’t it, but it’s nothing new. In fact, we here in old America or, as some call it, Britain, have been living with this for half a decade.

Earlier this year, I was part of the panel discussion on the role of challenger banks at the European Fintech Awards, and one of the main questions was whether the challenger banks were to lead to a revolution or if they are merely digital lipstick.

Banks might need to give their business customers a little nudge into digital payments.

InsurTech is booming. Or at least a lot of investors think it will boom soon as demonstrated by how much money they are investing – hitting US$1bn across 47 deals in H12016 according to the latest quarterly fintech venture capital report from KPMG and CB Insights. How can your average person profit from this boom in a simple way?

HSBC's retail banking and wealth management head John Flint expects banks to partner more with financial technology — or fintech — companies in the coming years to help meet changing demands from customers.

Bitcoin technology is starting to seep into the electricity business, shaking up the way payments are managed every time a light switch is flipped.

With 15 million self-employed individuals in the U.S., fintech companies are spinning transactional data into personalized gold. And that’s only one market. Learn from industry leaders how to attract and retain the next generation of banking customers.

The payments landscape has seen some major changes in the last decade thanks to innovations from new entrants to the market. Consumers have benefitted from better rates, lower fees, improved customer experience - all driven by new technologies.

With the digitalization also comes a shift in the very nature of the services offered to us. Consumers will change, the service landscape will change and banks will need to adapt - which means they will drastically change in the future, too.