Issue 126 · Jul 13, 2017 Weekly edition · 4 min read

Fintech News

The latest fintech news: Where banks fit in the fintech stack, reasons for consolidation in the fintech ecosystem and what's holding back blockchain in FS. – Michael and the FinTech Weekly team

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The perfect marriage of bank and fintech

Spiros Margaris, venture capitalist, advisor and founder of Margaris Advisory, talks at SAP Financial Services Forum about the importance of collaboration between banks and fintechs, and the need for banks to take aggressive steps to work with software providers and deliver the best solutions to move forward.

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In this issue · 13 items

Where Do Banks Fit in the Fintech Stack? The Financial Brand — It’s a good question, and it’s also the title of a recent presentation given by Lael Brainard, a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Ms. Brainard believes that the evolution of smartphones holds lessons for where the fintech ecosystem is heading, and what banks role within it might be. According to Brainard: Open story ↗ Insurtech gains momentum among consumers, too Digital Insurance — Insurance companies and startups together have grown the insurtech ecosystem by leaps and bounds over the past two years. And investments are paying off with more consumers transacting digitally with consumers than ever. Open story ↗ Blockchain Could Make the Insurance Industry Much More Transparent Harvard Business Review — While Edward Lloyd is largely credited with commercializing the insurance industry, with the creation of his namesake firm, Lloyd’s, over 330 years ago, the original concept of spreading risk (or “mutualizing”) goes back even further. Open story ↗ Why Bitcoin’s value could get even more volatile Venturebeat — Bitcoin’s price could be in for a big drop, and that’s because the cryptocurrency is facing a potentially contentious upgrade to its core software in August. If you haven’t heard about the impending deadline for a “user-activated soft fork”, here’s the story: Open story ↗ Blockchain too slow for banks, warns top blockchain firm fn — Fintech startup Ripple has opted for using only parts of the technology because 'there are a few things wrong' with the classic version Open story ↗ Banks deploy AI to cut off terrorist's funding Wired — ONE THING THAT makes ISIS so hard to fight is that the terrorist network is diffuse and scattered, with small cells of operatives all over the world. Not only does this make it hard for law enforcement to predict where the group might strike next; it makes it incredibly complicated to track activity on the network—activity like banking transactions. Open story ↗ How Brexit is set to hurt Europe’s financial systems Reuters Investigates — If Europe cuts off London’s deep financial markets when Britain leaves the EU, costs will likely rise for Europe’s banks and companies. Both Britain and Europe could suffer. Open story ↗ 5 Reasons Why Consolidation of Fintech Ecosystem May Be Inevitable The Financial Brand — The challenger banking battlefield is crowded, with new players coming into the marketplace every week. With the geographic and product scope of most new fintech challengers being limited, and venture capital being more selective, is consolidation inevitable? Open story ↗ Branches In Decline: Last One Out, Turn Off The Lights The Financial Brand — Consumer visits to retail bank branches are set to drop 36% between 2017 and 2022, with mobile transactions rising 121% in the same period, as customers increasingly shift to accessing their banking information via apps and secure, responsive sites on their mobile devices. Open story ↗ What’s really holding back blockchain in financial services American Banker — Starting out on a technology journey is never easy. History has taught us though that by starting the journey the path will become clearer and solutions will follow. Open story ↗ Killing 'Cryptocurrency': Why It's Time to Retire the Term Coindesk — It’s not the cryptocurrencies themselves that should be killed off, but rather the term (hence the quotation marks). Labeling everything going on in the crypto world (space, ecosystem, universe: pick one) "currencies" is dead, passé, OBE… You get the idea. Open story ↗ The exploding popularity of RegTech LSE Business Review — Following on from our piece on WealthTech – we look at the rise and rise of RegTech (previously known as regulatory technology.) RegTech is a subclass of FinTech, and concerns the use of technology to create efficiencies in financial services for issues regarding regulatory reporting and compliance. Open story ↗ Happy Together: Why Banks And Startups Should Collaborate On Fintech Forbes — Volume migration to pure digital players remains in the low single digits in the US, multiple challenger banks in the UK are facing funding and regulatory issues before they are even out of the gate, and many of the more successful fintech insurgents have been bought by incumbent banks just as they matured into legitimate competitors. Open story ↗

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The perfect marriage of bank and fintech

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