Fintech News Issue #134 September 21st, 2017

The title of this post was inspired by the 1996 documentary “When We Were Kings,” about the heavyweight fight of 1974 between two boxing legends, Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. In the not-so-distant future, it will also be a fitting phrase for many in the banking and insurance industries.

Companies across the globe lose billions in cash unknowingly. Twenty billion pounds of VAT on foreign and domestic expenses incurred by companies is left unclaimed every year. VAT IT has developed technologies that can get that money back, at the click of a button or the swipe of your screen.

Large technology companies like Amazon, Facebook, Google and Apple are a greater threat to traditional banking than fintech firms, according to a report from the World Economic Forum.

As traditional banks grapple with the challenges posed by FinTechs, legacy constraints and traditional operational models, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is emerging as the savior.

I’ve written a lot about legacy and the challenge of old systems, so it’s interesting to read a few press reports on said subjects. Yolanda Bobeldijk writes in the Financial News that 92 of the world’s top 100 banks still rely on IBM mainframes.

Until recently, before the aftermath of the financial crisis triggered the fast growth of a global fintech movement, and suggested that regulators around the world focus on empowering the consumer in a traditionally supply-side industry, banking showed very limited uncertainty.

A race for regulatory talent is about to begin. Regardless of the outcome of the Brexit negotiations, it’s almost certain many UK banks will relocate their headquarters or employees, and European financial capitals will swell in size.

Financial institutions are beginning to explore how artificial intelligence (AI) decrease costs, enhance revenue, reduce fraud and improve the customer experience. While there are challenges, it is time for organizations of all sizes to invest, learn and partner with experts who can help exploit the benefits of AI.

50 years ago, a new technology swept across banking, transforming the way that consumers interacted with their financial institutions and their money. This change allowed banks to shift their focus from applying rules to meeting evolving customer needs.

Customer expectations for financial and banking services are rising at an ever faster rate. The approaches of banks are increasingly framed in black and white terms of good and bad.

Why would a bank let their corporates indulge in setting up system privileges online – without keeping close tabs on the process? Here’s why.

Following on from the discussions about identity on Monday, it gets interesting to think about the customers’ data and who owns it, especially in light of the Payment Services Directive 2, PSD2 for short, which comes into force at the start of next year.

Organizations have raised over $1.8 billion through ICOs since January 2017. As organizations continue to raise tens, sometimes hundreds, of millions of dollars in each token sale, it grows increasingly important for industry leaders, lawyers, policymakers, and academics to understand both the ICO regulatory landscape and the economic and technological attributes of the cryptocurrency and ICO space.