Fintech News Issue #208 Thursday, March 14th 2019 08:00AM

This week we have some great stories for you as Sarah and Simon are joined by three great guests: Mel Palmer, CMO Exo Investing / Matt Valentine, Barclays UK Ventures / Ali Paterson, Editor in Chief, Fintech Finance

The big banks have been taking some grief recently for closing branches in low-income neighborhoods.

“It’s just a numbers game. Before, I could go out to a bar and talk to one girl, but now I can sit at home on Tinder and talk to 15 girls…”

Being British with a British accent, everyone asks me about what life will be like with Brexit … The next question is what does it all mean to the banking industry?

No longer limited to young and highly ambitious employees, self-development is a path for growth and survival in a time of disruption. While organizations can assist in this process, bank and credit union executives can no longer wait for a formal training program or for others to set a defined path.

For more than a century, banks have had a monopoly on our money. As a kid, I remember driving with my family to our local community bank where the world of money started and ended for my parents.

In the U.S., open banking may not yet be law like it is in the U.K., but its impact will continue to ripple across the pond. Here's how experts say the concept will affect banking providers worldwide, including American institutions.

Facebook’s reported stablecoin project could be a significant moneymaker for the social media giant, according to Barclays analyst Ross Sandler.

Insurers are now adopting APIs to enhance digital capabilities and provide a better customer experience. Rapid technology advancements and the spike in the number of connected devices are spurring API adoption even further.

I got a large number of pings over the weekend to read and comment on an article on Medium by Lance Ng headlined: Facebook Plans to Become World’s Biggest Central Bank?

Apple and Goldman Sachs have teamed up to offer a credit card in a deal that may foretell future pairings with more ominous consequences. Who's next? Could this alliance spur Amazon, Google, Facebook and other big companies to partner with a banking provider?

A customer-centric approach moves your institution away from 'selling' in the traditional sense. Instead, the process begins with engagement conversations and ends with customized offerings based on the consumer's identified needs. Instead of focusing on fee revenue, banks and credit unions must devise a consumer-friendly equitable value exchange similar to Amazon Prime membership that is a win-win-win.

Machine learning can help banks restore the personalised service they were once noted for, says Balázs Vinnai, president of W.UP.

Ant Financial is furthering its ambitions to become a strategic technology supplier to the traditional baking industry, unveiling a new core banking platform co-developed with Hoperun Information Technology.

Sankar Krishnan, executive vice-president, banking and capital markets at consultancy Capgemini, says CFOs need to recognise that AI can transform and reimagine both their role and the departments they oversee.

Most lenders who are on the outlook to serve the gig economy have a very promising opportunity ahead of them

Over a seven-year period, a new industry has given rise to 3,300 new firms, increased their financing thirteenfold to $22 billion and increased their percentage of the personal loan market from 1% to 36%.