#Wirecard has crossed the pond and found the U.S. to still be the land of opportunity. After quietly acquiring Citi #Prepaid #Card Services for an undisclosed amount (in cash) in June, Wirecard is now gearing up for transaction volumes of $ 6 billion as early as 2017. The Aschheim, Germany-based payments processor expects thatRead More
Bank Innovation
A survey conducted by Deutsche Bank and FT Remark, the research arm of the #Financial Times, found that a staggering majority (87%) of financial #market #participants are confident that #blockchain #technology will #disrupt the settlement model for securities.
62% believe that the introduction of distributed ledger technology will produce substantial savings ranging from 11% to 25%. Almost half say that it will help the #industry cope with the risk of system failure and market disruption.
“Blockchain may completely change the settlement model for securities processing, creating a utility around securities processing and cash management,” commented David Rhydderch, Deutsche Bank’s head of alternative fund services.
&8220;The entire back end would become a far more efficient, far less costly, more accurate and less risk-prone function. This has an obvious knock-on effect on the cost of service provision. In the administration space, blockchain may not be quite the disruptor. It’s more in the functional utility elements within the securities processing settlement chain. In that context, it may be totally revolutionary.&8221;
Respondents believe that blockchain technology will be widely used within the next three to six years (75%).
The industry is still struggling to figure out how to implement the technology in the current web of legacy infrastructure, the report says, noting that market participants are trying to determine how it can be deployed in a way that works, given ongoing data protection and security concerns.
The document a previous report released earlier this year by Euroclear and Oliver Wyman which praised the merits of blockchain technology in capital markets and highlighted the potential of the technology to provide a new approach to data management and be a solution to many of the efficiencies afflicting capital markets.
The Deutsche Bank report, titled &8220;Powering the flow of global capital: Capital markets investor insights,&8221; highlights the key findings of a survey of 200 market participants to examine what is driving today&8217;s capital market.
The research found that regulation, new technologies and emerging markets are key issues impacting strategic thinking. These three areas have caused the vast majority of respondents to partially or completely reshape their operating models, buying behavior and capital/fund allocations over the past two years.
&8220;These three themes are fundamentally redefining the securities services landscape and the knock-on effects will impact the business models of many capital markets participants,&8221; according to Satvinder Singh, head of global securities services and head of GTB EMEA ex Germany.
Notably, a majority of market participants are convinced of a revival of emerging markets. 54% believe emerging markets will deliver growth rates close to those seen during the 2001-2011 boom, noting that India and South Asia will likely be the most attractive region (88%).
China, Indonesia, Russia and Turkey in particular are ranked highest for their capital market infrastructure. Respondents said that China and India have made the greatest infrastructure improvements during the last five years.
That being said, investing in emerging markets remains risky and some investors are hesitant.
Respondents ranked regulatory hurdles as their greatest or second greatest challenge (62%) when carrying out securities transactions in emerging markets, followed by political interference (53%) and instability as a challenge, and unreliable capital markets infrastructure (40%).
Featured image: Stock market chart by bluebay via Shutterstock.com.
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In October of this year the New #Zealand Government’s Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment (MBIE) released an issues paper outlining the current state of the country’s retail payment systems. The paper is part of a broader conversation about payments, #technology and banking efficiency that many governments are starting toRead More
Bank Innovation
Investors continued to take a much more cautious approach to #fintech investments this year. #Venture capital (VC)-backed #global fintech deal activity fell for the second consecutive quarter, marking its lowest level since Q2’14, according to the Pulse of Fintech, the quarterly report on global fintech VC trends published jointly by KPMG International and CB Insights.
VC-backed fintech in Q3 2016
VC-backed fintech #funding dropped 17% to US$ 2.4B, while deal activity fell 12% to 178 deals in #Q3’16 compared to the previous quarter. Asia was the only continent to see a fintech funding increase on a quarterly basis in Q3’16, while North America and Europe fintech funding declined. All three continents covered in the report saw fintech deal count drop.
Chia Tek Yew
“Asian investors are seeing the potential of fintech amidst global uncertainty in an environment of moderating growth,” said Chia Tek Yew, Head of Financial Services Advisory, KPMG in Singapore. “As businesses continue to embark on the journey of transformation, interest and investment in Asia’s fintech sector will continue to be strong, particularly in areas like payments #technology, insurance technology and regulatory or risk technology.”
Mr Chia added: “Singapore is a leading fintech hub, being one of the first countries in the world to put in place a regulatory fintech sandbox. There are also plans by the authorities to explore ways to attract more VC funds, which bodes well for the overall funding ecosystem.”
Asia quarterly fintech funding tops US: US$ 1.2B across 35 deals in Q3’16. While the number of VC-backed fintech deals dropped to a five-quarter low in Asia, funding increased 50% on a quarter-over-quarter basis to reach US$ 1.2B. Year-to-date results of US$ 4.7B suggest Asia-based fintech investment for 2016 could top last year’s peak investment results of US$ 4.8B. Corporates continue to be highly active in Asia’s fintech investment environment, participating in more than half of all deals to VC-backed fintech startups in Q3’16.
North America sees fintech funding fall below US$ 1B. North America saw both fintech funding and the number of deals fall on a quarter-over-quarter basis, as VC-backed startups raised just US$ 0.9B across 96 deals, a drop of 5% in deals from Q2’16 Funding in Q3’16 to VC-backed fintech companies in North America fell 68% compared to the same quarter last year, which saw US$ 100M+ financings to the likes of Sofi, Avant and Kabbage. #KPMG and the KPMG logo are registered trademarks of KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity.
Deal Count and Investment by Continent
Europe fintech funding on pace to drop below 2015 levels. Q3’16 saw European fintech deals fall 17% quarter-over-quarter as fintech funding in Europe dropped 43% over the same time period to US$ 233M. Germany outpaced the UK in terms of fintech funding for the second consecutive quarter, with 35% more funding raised by German- based VC-backed fintech companies than those in the UK.
Corporates stay active in fintech. Corporates participated in 30% of global VC-backed fintech deals for the second consecutive quarter in Q3’16, driving a significant amount of fintech deals activity globally. Citigroup, Banco Santander and Goldman Sachs have made over 20+ fintech investments in total over the past five quarters, while a host of insurers have launched corporate venture arms.
Other key highlights from the Pulse of Fintech:
The Pulse of Fintech
Global fintech mega-rounds fell to a new low in Q3’16. Asia saw US$ 50M+ fintech rounds stay level for the fourth straight quarter, while Europe has not registered a single US$ 50M+ round to a VC-backed fintech company so far in 2016.
The median late-stage deal size in fintech globally fell to US$ 23M in Q3’16. This is significantly smaller than the same quarter last year, when median late-stage fintech deal size hit US$ 50.2M globally.
Total year-to-date funding to VC-backed InsurTech companies reached US$ 1.36B at the end of Q3’16. InsurTech-focused VC-backed deal activity topped 20 deals during three of the past five quarters.
Next-gen payments has attracted US$ 1.2B+ in 2016 VC-backed funding (year-to-date). The top 20 deals, including Affirm, Mobikwik and One97, raked in 67% of the total funding to payments technology companies in the first three quarters.
Anand Sanwal
Anand Sanwal, CEO of CB Insights, adds: “While we continue to see significant investment into fintech companies globally, the euphoria for mega-deals that we saw into the latter half of 2015 has waned. Total investments to key areas like marketplace lending and #blockchain technology have both seen #declines heading into the tail-end of 2016.”
The post Global Venture Capital-backed Fintech Funding Declines In Q3’16: KPMG And CB Insights appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News – FintechNewsCH.
When it comes to introducing cashless transactions to new markets across the world, #Visa is usually the pioneer. Not so in #China, however, according to Visa’s Chief Financial Officer Vasant Prabhu: Normally we go #into countries, and we are the ones who are out there, doing the missionary work inRead More
Bank Innovation
Zwei von drei Banken lagern bereits ihre IT-Infrastruktur oder zumindest Teile davon aus. Damit bewegen sich die Schweizer Finanzdienstleister im Trend. Doch beim Thema Cloud Computing zögern sie. Noch verhindern Sicherheitsüberlegungen, dass sie ihre IT-Infrastrukturen einem virtuellen Rechenzentrum anvertrauen.
Das Marktforschungsunternehmen IDC konstatiert: Erst 25 Prozent der europäischen Finanzinstitute nutzen private, öffentliche oder hybride Cloud-Angebote. Über alle Branchen hinweg ist dieser Anteil deutlich grösser; je nach Quelle liegt er zwischen 77 und 90 Prozent.
Das Tempo, mit dem Digital Banking und Fintech die Branche überrollen, überfordert jedoch häufig die hauseigene IT. Zu schnell wandeln sich die Businessanforderungen, als dass die Infrastruktur die nötigen skalierbaren Kapazitäten innert nützlicher Zeit dynamisch bereitstellen kann.
Doch was macht die Finanzindustrie so besonders, dass die Cloud einen so schweren Stand hat? Zwei wesentliche Faktoren stehen der flexiblen Ressourcenallokation über geographisch verteilte IT-Infrastrukturen im Wege.
Aus dem FINMA-Rundschreiben 2008/7 zum Outsourcing für Banken wird abgeleitet, dass Bankkundendaten in der Schweiz zu halten seien. Bei Auslagerung ins Ausland ist mit «angemessenen technischen und organisatorischen Massnahmen» der Schutz des Bankgeheimnisses und der kundenidentifizierbaren Daten «nach Schweizer Recht» sicherzustellen, heisst es.
Die preislich und von ihrer Flexibilität her attraktiven Angebote aus der Public-Cloud, auf denen man sich per #Self #Service Speicher- oder Rechenkapazität «zusammenklickt», kommen somit nicht in Frage. Denn die Server stehen verteilt in der ganzen Welt.
Gerade diese geographisch weiträumig verteilten Ressourcen sind der Grund, dass Cloud Services so boomen. Denn damit ist jene hochflexible Skalierbarkeit von Kapazitäten möglich, mit denen Unternehmen ihre Infrastruktur minutenschnell erweitern können. Doch die Anonymität des Ressourcenpools ist die Schwachstelle der Public Cloud, wenn es um businesskritische Anwendungen und Daten geht.
Dafür müssen Sicherheitsstandards und Leistungsparameter in einer Form definiert werden, wie es üblicherweise über Service Level Agreements in einer Private Cloud geschieht. Messgrössen wie Uptime, Performance, Verfügbarkeit, Antwortzeiten und Supportleistungen müssen verhandel- und durchsetzbar sein.
Reine Public-Cloud-Lösungen sind daher im Finanzsektor momentan nicht denkbar. Mit den herkömmlichen Private-Cloud-Plattformen ist jedoch das Niveau an Flexibilität, Variabilität der Kostenstrukturen und Agilität nicht zu erreichen.
Der einzige Weg zu einer Finance-Cloud führt daher über das hybride Modell, in dem über eine Managed Private Cloud einer geschlossenen Community schrittweise der Zugang zu Ressourcen aus der Public Cloud eröffnet wird. Das Modell besteht in einer Kombination der Vorteile von Private- und Public-Cloud-Eigenschaften.
In einer Private-Cloud-Umgebung wird eine Community-Cloud aufgebaut, in der die spezifischen Sicherheits-, Datenschutz- und Service-Level-Anforderungen der Finanzinstitute adressiert sind.
Ein exklusiver Kreis von Finanzdienstleistern „shared“ sozusagen die Infrastruktur und wird dafür mit einem „Quality Onboarding“ belohnt: Self Service für die Banken ja, aber erst wenn ihre Bedürfnisse so weit abgeklärt und umgesetzt sind, dass sie Compliance-konform umgesetzt werden können.
Auf diese hochsichere und gemanagte Cloud-Plattform wird schliesslich eine Public Cloud aufgesetzt, über die Ressourcen frei bezogen werden können. Dieser Public-Cloud-Anteil wird zunächst noch sehr überschaubar sein.
Doch je mehr Erfahrung die Kunden mit verschiedenen Cloud-Modellen sammeln, umso besser können schlussendlich Kosten- und Flexibilitätsvorteile gegenüber Sicherheits- und Compliance-Vorgaben austariert werden.
The post Bank-IT im Self Service appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News – FintechNewsCH.
The #Golem anthropomorphic figure The Golem deal beckons us to revisit the ICO market. Our recent coverage can be found in IPO or ICO or IEO (briefing on Colored Coins) and Transparency missing from the suppliers of Capital to Fintechs. Golem’s ICO is over. It raised 820,000 ETH (roughly $ 8.6 million) in a coupleRead More
Bank Innovation
As millions of people begin to participate in #Global #Entrepreneurship Week celebrations in 165 countries, a new report shows the United States remains the country with the most favorable conditions for entrepreneurs to start and scale new businesses but with a slowly narrowing gap as other countries increase their support.
The 2017 Global Entrepreneurship Index (GEI) provides key information for policymakers and government leaders worldwide to strengthen their digital ecosystems and promote high-growth, high-impact entrepreneurship. The authors estimate that improving conditions to help entrepreneurs create new companies could add $ 22 trillion to the global economy.
“China and India are strengthening their entrepreneurial ecosystems and creating billion dollar startups while Malaysia, Iceland and the Baltic states are emerging as digital entrepreneurship leaders,” said Zoltan Acs, co-author of the report and university professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. “While institutional variables still need to be strengthened in emerging economies—where individuals are running ahead of policymakers—in developed countries individuals need to be shaken up. In other words, not enough people in developed countries—including the United States—are starting productive high-growth businesses.”
The top of the rankings were dominated by countries in the innovation-driven stage of development. The United States topped the rankings again this year, with a GEI score of 83.4 – a slight drop from its score of 86.2 the previous year. It was followed by (in order): Switzerland (78.0), Canada (75.6), Sweden (75.5), Denmark (74.1), Iceland (73.5), Australia (72.5), the United Kingdom (71.3), Ireland (71.0) and Netherlands (67.8).
India (25.8) enjoyed the largest jump in the rankings, moving up 29 spots from last year to land in 69th. Tunisia (40.5) had the second largest jump, from 62nd to 42nd. China (36.3) moved up 12 spots to 48th.
The GEI measures a country’s entrepreneurial ecosystem by combining individual data such as opportunity recognition, startup skills and risk acceptance, with institutional measures, including urbanization, education and economic freedom. These measurements help distinguish self-employment and replicative entrepreneurship from the innovative, productive and rapidly growing entrepreneurial ventures that drive real economic growth.
This year, it included four new components of the digital entrepreneurship ecosystem: Digital Citizenship, Digital Governance, Digital Marketplace and Digital Business.
The report was released by Global Entrepreneurship Network and the GEDI Institute so that findings from the #Index can drive policy discussions at events around the world during Global Entrepreneurship Week.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg of the digital disruption revolution unfolding,” said Jonathan Ortmans, president of the Global Entrepreneurship Network. “The promise of jobs, economic growth and the optimism and hope that entrepreneurs bring to government efforts to create opportunity and prosperity for their citizens, has generated an extraordinary increase in attention from all levels of government in empowering their entrepreneurial ecosystems.”
Other interesting observations from the report include:
– The big surprise is the rise of Switzerland to 2nd place, primarily driven by the aspiration index with very strong scores in high-growth firms, product innovation and process innovation.
&8211; Three of the five Nordic countries, Denmark, Iceland, and Sweden, are in the top ten.
&8211; Taiwan, the highest Asian country, is in 16th place, and Singapore is 24th, which virtually ties it with Japan.
The post The 2017 Global Entrepreneurship Index appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News – FintechNewsCH.
Payments is a great business to be in — in China, that is. The Chinese e-commerce giant #JD.com announced it is considering the sale of its internet finance #unit, JD Finance, “in order to facilitate its development in certain licensed financial service businesses in China, and to take advantage of theRead More
Bank Innovation
More than 150 people from the #fintech ecosystem in Denmark made it to Christianshavn today to participate in the grand opening of #Copenhagen Fintech #Lab – Scandinavia’s first co-working space dedicated to fintech entrepreneurs.
The Minister for Business and Growth Troels Lund Poulsen and the Mayor of Employment and Integration Anna Mee Allerslev both gave very passionate speeches about the importance of growing the fintech ecosystem in Denmark and Copenhagen.
The director of Global Ecosystem Development (at Startupbootcamp) Elizabeth Lumley gave a very personal speech on the real impact of fintech and how it will help us make society more inclusive.
Copenhagen Fintech is a joint initiative by the Financial Services Union Denmark, the City of Copenhagen, the Danish Bankers Association and many more visionary partners and sponsors.
Our ambition is to create a one-of-a-kind place, where we bring together well-established fintech startups and new ones, so they can learn from each other. We want to create a platform for co-creation, new partnerships and co-development that will fuel creative innovation, exploiting synergies cross companies and speeds up time-to-market.
At the same time we also launched our new profile video of the lab including interviews with the many startups.
As you can see from the video, we have an awesome location at the heart of Copenhagen and if your fintech startup is looking for a home we should talk. So do not hesitate to contact us: [email protected] or +45 22 96 18 22.
You can also take a look at our website.
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