Fintech News Issue #89 October 12th, 2016

Erik Zingmark, Co-Head of Transaction Banking, and Patrik Havander, Head of Strategy & Communication, Transaction Banking, Nordea, outline the role of digitalisation in banking, how open banking can help financial institutions to stay relevant, and how collaboration with fintechs should be carried out.

Compare the Fintech industry to the rest when it comes to the latest trends, technologies and platforms in mobile. You’ll get a 10-page PDF with all the results from 700+ mobile executives. Benchmark your business now.

Women have proved they’re a force to be reckoned with in the business world. See how business loans for women have advanced to support female business owners.

It's hard to think of a single technology that will shape our world more in the next 50 years than artificial intelligence. As machine learning enables our computers to teach themselves, a wealth of breakthroughs emerge, ranging from medical diagnostics to cars that drive themselves. A whole lot of worry emerges as well. Who controls this technology? Will it take over our jobs? Is it dangerous? President Obama was eager to address these concerns.

On the 16th-18th October, the Brexit & Global Expansion Summit will convene global business and government leaders to explore global expansion opportunities in this new 'Brexit' era.

Europe's largest and best conference for retail banking and financial services product innovation. Join us for unique insight from 30 distinguished speakers from around the world.

If you ask almost any early-stage B2B FinTech startup selling to banks what their biggest challenge is, the answer you’ll likely get is “sales.” Although interest in FinTech from incumbent institutions has surged over the past few years, getting to initial pilots and contracts with banks is a challenging process for any early FinTech company.

Banks are staring down the barrel of a loaded gun. Preparing to squeeze the trigger is an army of agile FinTech businesses. Here, Mike Galarza, the CEO and founder of Entryless, discusses how FinTech - aided by startups - is taking the fight to traditional financial institutions.

The writing is on the wall. The bank branch wall that is. In a world of ubiquitous smartphones, bank branch ROI continues to plummet. That leaves many financial institutions wondering how to replace the branch’s historic role as the center of customer acquisition.

Financial marketers are tasked with understanding and using new technologies that can help them reach consumers, even as those consumers' preferences are rapidly changing. It's like trying to hit a moving target while shooting from a moving vehicle.

Scams and online attacks are the main culprits behind the increase in financial fraud in the first half of 2016, new figures from Financial Fraud Action show.

Theresa May’s speech at the recent Conservative Party Conference points to a hard Brexit, and the pound is taking a pummelling. Story by Chris Skinner.

‘Let’s not get personal’ is certainly not about the modern way to serve the customers’ financial needs in the best way. Financial institutions should get personal if they wish to evolve and be relevant in a highly competitive market where personalization is one of the most important ways to appeal to experientially omnivorous consumers.

Although there isn't a timeline yet, ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin today suggested that the platform's developers may have to hard fork to once again solve pressing network problems. If pursued, the move would come less than three months after ethereum last executed a hard fork in a controversial bid to return funds to investors in The DAO.

While three quarters of banks are actively experimenting with blockchain technology, regulatory uncertainty and a lack of inhouse expertise are proving major roadblocks to near-term adoption, according to research from SIX Securities Services.

APIs (application programming interfaces) are fast becoming integral to the banking world, but corporate culture has not yet caught up with the technology, according to data from a survey conducted by the Open Bank Project together with Bank Innovation.