FinTech News Issue #23 July 9th, 2015

How much of an uplift is Canada’s financial technology industry getting, and should incumbent finance firms fight them, or join them. FinTech is proving to be an exciting area for investors, because of its potential to disrupt entrenched business models with new technologies.

For a long time, the terms "user friendly" and "banking experience" rarely appeared in the same sentence. Almost nothing within the industry was designed around the customer. This approach didn't hurt banks, since complex regulation, capital requirements, and entrenched technology kept potential disruptors at bay.

Banks are under threat from a growing number of tech startups and digital companies who are working to capture market share from traditional players. Despite the fact that banks are spending billions of pounds on digital transformation and innovation activities, changing the entrenched culture within these organisations is very difficult.

Financial institutions around the world are forced to confront a difficult question: should we close, keep, consolidate, modify or move their branch locations. This article outlines a three-part methodology you can utilize to assess your unique situation.

The financial technology (FinTech) sector is responsible for a record hike in venture capital being poured into London's startup scene, a report has revealed ahead of our own WIRED Money event this week.

Citi Bank’s head of digital Heather Cox says the incumbent institutions are moving too slow and aren’t relevant enough to lead the fintech space.

Vladislav Solodkiys personal discoveries of the next 15 Asian fintech startups worth looking at.

SlimPay is all about making recurring payments in Europe as easy and seamless as possible. The company also takes care of credit card payments, but this space is much more competitive. The startup’s motto is that SlimPay should be able to take care of all sorts of payments as long as it’s recurring.

Blockchain technology will bring either doom or opportunity to securities services firms, according to European banking giant BNP Paribas.

Facebook is happy to announce that Messenger person-to-person payments are now available to everyone in the U.S.!

Patricia Hines discovers the latest technologies for banking authentication, which focus on more sophisticated biometric authentication methods for its corporate online and mobile banking applications.

According to the International Business Times, Citigroup has built its own digital currency based on bitcoin and the blockchain. This, in itself, isn’t very difficult. But the fact that Citibank, at least in its R&D arm, is looking into the technology is promising.