Fintech News Issue #78 July 27th, 2016

A few years back, I had a fascinating discussion about Fintech. Today every 3rd if not 4th profile on LinkedIn is about FinTech Expert. Few days ago someone asked me a million dollar question “What is FinTech?”

How will businesses large and small take advantage of what Brian Roemmele and Faisal Khan call “Pokemon Speed”?

It’s not just banks’ products, processes and designs that should plug-and-play, says Chris Skinner. We should be able to plug-and-play any other services into the BaaS model.

When you’re in financial services, it sometimes seems like fintech startups are everywhere. They’re on Twitter, LinkedIn, they’re at conferences, they’re in your inbox, they may be waiting outside your office this very minute. But for each one you’ve heard of, there are ten you probably haven’t come across yet, and one of them might have the idea you’ve been looking for. In that optimistic spirit, here are ten such startups for you.

Investment in digital banking is driving increased customer acquisition, cross-selling and satisfaction while decreasing branch traffic and related costs.

The UK’s Brexit vote threw traders and investors off-balance and disrupted global financial markets.

Retail banks are focusing on small business lending as a revenue stream in a competitive market. But what exactly do small business owners want from banks? Digital banking options are high on their list.

Fitting the blockchain piece into an organization’s technology puzzle is going to require both business and technology transformation.

Banks have taken a bit of a hit since Brexit. As a cyclical stock, banking in tandem with housebuilding and travel, has seen a considerable slide in share price. In the face of market volatility, investors panic, withdraw cash from banks to plough into defensives. In the weeks since Brexit, banking shares dropped by up to 20 per cent.

The edge mid-sized and community banks have historically had on the big guys is that they put a face to banking. For small and medium-sized business owners, that personal touch may be the factor that leads them to choose their local branch over a major, multinational financial institution.

I’ve worked with banks for over 25 years, and their cost-cutting cycle is becoming depressingly familiar. The external environment deteriorates, profit plans are missed, shareholders get nervous, and a decree comes from the c-suite to cut costs. In response, obvious fat is trimmed, management is thinned through a spans-and-layers exercise, external contracts are renegotiated and sofa cushions are lifted to find some loose change.