Fintech News Issue #96 December 8th, 2016

I’ve noticed a great deal of schadenfreude related to the R3 bump. Lots of people saying that blockchain is past its sell-by date, R3 are bust and distributed ledgers are dead. I think it’s related to the journalists who, having delighted in bigging up blockchain big time for the past two years are now relishing the idea of trashing it but come on guys, blockchain is far from dead. It’s just entered the trough of disillusionment.

Traditional banks should feel more threatened than they currently do, says Sudhir Kesavan, who examines the difference between digital banks and digital banking.

Over 70% of financial institutions globally place 'improving the customer experience' as one of their top 3 strategic priorities in 2017, according to a research study done by the Digital Banking Report.

Technology and innovation – plotting the future of asset managers, wealth managers and hedge funds.

Blockchain—more precisely, distributed ledger technology—seems to be the talk of the town. Best-known as the process underpinning the virtual currency Bitcoin, there is no doubt that it holds promise for global trade.

The internet looks set to advise many aspects of our lives from the moment we wake up in the morning until the moment we go to sleep. Even the humble toaster can be connected to a wireless network whilst heating up bread for our breakfast.

The idea of a cashless society in India may sound implausible, but the spurt in digital transactions after the note ban and examples such as Sweden testify to the contrary

We fell in love with you at first sight. You were the answer to our hopes for innovation in open banking, consumer freedom and for our legally watertight business models in what was once a rather uncertain area.

Biometric-based verification is one of the biggest trends in the security industry. So what is the hold up in the banking industry?

Ask any tech enthusiast to list the innovations they are most excited about at the moment, and there’s a good chance artificial intelligence (AI) will be pretty close to the top of that list.

Despite some recent departures from a blockchain consortium, banks are throwing their weight behind the distributed ledger technology.

Banks’ old ways of thinking don’t tally with the small, modern, agile teams that can change things fast. The control freak culture has to change, says Chris Skinner.

Amazon’s latest announcement of Go, a supermarket where consumers can get in, “grab what they want and simply walk out” was funnily described as “shoplifting” by CNET...

CIRCLE UNVEILED ITSELF at a bitcoin conference in 2014, vowing to take the digital currency mainstream. But like so many other startups that embraced this big idea at around the same time, its mission has changed.

The Internet of Everything describes the networked connections between devices, people, processes and data. By 2020, the IoE has the potential to connect 50 billion people, devices and things.

A Special Report

We are looking forward to how UX will evolve in 2017. In the meantime, here’s our take on looking at the past, understanding the present, and anticipating what the future holds for UX.