Fintech News Issue #156 February 22nd, 2018

Here's some crystal ball gazing, courtesy of KPMG's global fintech team.

We have seen a wave of excitement about technology in the past few years, from the Internet of Things to bitcoin to mobile apps to FinTech. These developments are changing the whole way in which we live and relate to each other, as every human on the planet becomes connected to everyone else through the network.

Amazon may be the best customer experience organization in the world, reflected in the superior growth in sales and revenues. What can the banking industry learn from Amazon about improving customer experience?

Since the 13th January, it has been hard to miss the mainstream and trade press coverage on Open Banking – a significant milestone in UK banking.

After years of development, drafting, deliberation, debate, delay, denial and deferment, MiFID II is finally, for the most part, in effect. Buy-side firms now face the combined challenges of implementing those residual requirements that were not enacted on January 3, 2018.

Focus too much on digital banking and you risk alienating consumers who prefer traditional channels like branches. But if you don’t invest enough in your digital experience, younger consumers may take their business elsewhere. How do you strike the right balance?

Last Monday, Feb. 12 Chief Fintech Officer of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Sopnendu Mohanty mocked the excessive speculatory activity that is “perhaps negatively impacting the whole experimentation of cryptocurrency.”

The Wall Street Journal asked PayPal’s chief financial officer, John Rainey, about the competition and the future of payments. Here are edited excerpts of the conversation.

Google announced last month that it was bringing Android Pay and Google Wallet together under the new Google Pay brand. Today, the big rollout begins, with the new Google Pay-branded app now available through Google Play.

A battle between, on one side, novelty, technology and gusto and, on the other, immovable inertia

During the first era of the internet — from the 1980s through the early 2000s — internet services were built on open protocols that were controlled by the internet community. This meant that people or organizations could grow their internet presence knowing the rules of the game wouldn’t change later on.

Despite an overwhelming amount of discussion about Open Banking and the potential of an expanded banking ecosystem among the banking community, communication of Open Banking benefits to consumers has been lackluster at best. Do legacy institutions hope Open Banking just goes away? Time will tell.

LUDWIK SOBOLEWSKI, ExCEO at Warsaw Stock Exchange and Bucharest Stock Exchange, Board Member at HighCastle Group, explains the future of fintech and financial markets.

So PSD2 arrived in a flurry of nothing. As underwhelming as it was entirely predictable, not only was the first deadline missed by pretty much all concerned, the innovative and enticing new services PSD2 is supposed to facilitate are far from fruition

The increased interest and excitement towards cryptocurrencies has resulted in an influx of new money flowing into the cryptocurrency market. However, entering into the crypto world is extremely intimidating, especially when you’re dealing with a subject matter that is technically complex.

Capital has been flowing into the alternative investment industry over the past few years, with sources projecting that money invested in private funds will reach as much as $20 trillion by 2020. Preqin recently published a study stating that there are as many as 17,000 private funds open for investment.