Fintech News Issue #165 April 26th, 2018

Several business models that are bound to fail — and a few that might have a chance

Transforming a traditional financial institution into a digital organization goes beyond redesigned online banking or mobile apps. Infrastructure and legacy processes must change, as does the culture. Despite the difficulty, there is no other option.

Another conversation about Open Banking, and an interesting point was raised by one bank. They said that they had been mapping financial moments – getting married, buying a house, having a baby, crashing your car, etc – and had started to reimagine the whole customer experience in those moments using APIs.

Blockchain technology is probably one of the most impactful discoveries in the recent history. After all, it has a massive potential to change how we handle online transactions. Despite some skeptics, the majority of experts agree that blockchain has the potential to disrupt the banking and financial industry, and many other ones!

A data-driven look at global financial technology investment trends, top deals, active investors, and corporate activity.

I am a firm believer that within a few short years, the commonly heard admission “I am not technical” will carry the same weight of implausibility and colossal impracticality as the admission of illiteracy in the boardroom. Illiterate execs just don’t happen.

Understanding customers is the foundation to a sustainable competitive advantage in banking. Therefore, financial marketers can no longer wait to embrace the power of advanced analytics to gain insights and evaluate opportunities that will improve cross-selling, up-selling and enhance share of wallet.

WeChat provides an amazing example of how the power of integrated products and services, combined with a strong messaging and payments platform, could become the model for the banking ecosystem of the future.

As the world becomes increasingly more digital, the number of passwords people have to manage is becoming a serious problem. Financial institutions need to investigate acceptable biometric alternatives for authenticating mobile banking users that balance both security and simplicity.

Advances in artificial intelligence and automation could replace as many as half the nation’s financial services workers over the next decade, industry experts say, but it’s going to take a big investment to make that happen.

Gaining and keeping competitive advantage for businesses has never been more challenging. At the same time, though, there have never been more opportunities to build and scale a company with global reach

This article is for everyone who tries to will themselves invisible at the mention of blockchain.

There’s rapid fire change in the lending industry with new competitors emerging on a daily basis. Some of this competition comes from unexpected directions like e-commerce platforms, rideshare apps, and Wall Street giants who used to specialize in commercial loans for large corporations.

As brick-and-mortar retailers look to enhance the in-store experience to compete with the ecommerce giants, they must contend with the unprecedented challenges posed by decreasing revenues and escalating costs.