Fintech News Issue #213 April 18th, 2019

The regulation of financial technology is complex and expanding to cover more aspects of our lives, just like the technology itself. Watch as Fintech Beat's Chris Brummer explains four important regulation issues you should keep an eye on in the near term.

Brett King, a pioneer among banking disruptors, predicts a future where banking functions become embedded within other experiences, and a world where fresh thinking upends concepts in the financial industry that were long considered hallowed. Where do traditional financial institutions fit in King's vision of tomorrow?

When you are investing and strive for a higher ROI, whom do you address? As a rule, you reach out to a team of wealth advisors. That means meeting regularly with those financial consultants to discuss your ventures and make adjustments to your investment portfolio. This process is time and money consuming and can be frustrating, as well.

The financial services industry is experiencing merger and acquisition activity at unprecedented rates, as new fintech companies disrupt from below and legacy players react to stay relevant.

Fin-k Tank takes a look at what is new in the worlds of tech and investing, and delves into what consumers really want and expect. A fast-paced afternoon of fintech demos, panels and interviews from experts in venture capital, AI, open banking, consulting, asset management and the start-up world, this afternoon will bring up to speed anyone interested in how to build better services for customers.

The sharing economy works. One only need to look at global behemoths like Uber, Lyft and AirBnB to see proof of the concept – and the truth is that they are only the start of the revolution. Fintech is showing it has the potential to effectively replace a monopoly that has been around for centuries: the banks.

I was travelling in rural Bihar a few weeks ago, when I met Anand, a young, first-generation entrepreneur, who runs a mobile accessories shop in Tajpur village of Muzaffarpur district. He carried a smartphone and I noticed he had a few payments apps on it.

History is replete with people’s failures to anticipate the impact of technological change. Are we making the same mistake with financial technology (fintech)? Could it, in fact, be the next revolutionary technology to boost economic growth?

How much should a thing cost? This simple question is a politically vexing one, whether the cost is for housing, energy, or health care. It is also at the center of one of the most difficult and intriguing questions in finance: how much should lenders charge borrowers for credit, especially if those borrowers are economically disadvantaged?

As many of Europe’s biggest financial firms trim staff and brace for Brexit, their emerging competitors are charging ahead at full speed.

Avaloq has unveiled a new event platform, avaloq.one,to help the financial services industry in their efforts working more effectively with fintechs.

Deposit your money in a savings account. The bank bundles those savings into a loan to a furniture-maker, receives interest on the loan, and uses a portion to pay interest on your initial deposit. That’s how banking and lending works.

While most of the headlines covering Goldman Sachs’ (NYSE:GS) Q1 earnings report targeted the decline in earnings and profit, for investors that tuned in to the earnings call they were able to learn more about Goldman’s transformation into a financial services firm of the future.