In this episode, which aired Dec. 9, host Brett King talks augmented reality and artificial intelligence, and what effect the increased presence of that #technology will have on financial services. King recently attended the SLUSH conference in #Helsinki Finland before migrating to the #Fintech Japan event in #Tokyo. At bothRead More
Bank Innovation
#Visa and #Mastercard may compete strenuously for business, but today they’re announcing a collaboration in the mobile wallet sphere. The two companies issued simultaneous announcements today describing how Masterpass and Visa Checkout can just get along. In case you&8217;re wondering how the annoucements compare in their treatment of their competitors, we&8217;ve reproduced theRead More
Bank Innovation
#Permissionless, permissioned. #Cashless, cash-filled—two of the larger discussions currently underway in the #fintech world. However, a recent paper by Coin Center’s Peter Van Valkenburgh suggests that the most beneficial way forward may be to merge the two. The paper, which can be viewed here, postulates that #blockchain is ideally suited toRead More
Bank Innovation
With the world’s largest financial services sector and a booming tech sector, #London is undoubtedly the capital for any #fintech startup in Europe, combining the key ingredients for success: capital, talent, regulatory and government support and demographic diversity.
In 2015, investment in fintech companies around the world rocketed by 106% to US$ 13.8 billion through 653 deals, according to the Pulse of Fintech report by KPMG and CB Insights. London alone accounted for US$ 743.7 million through 50 deals.
Image: Tower Bridge, London, via Pixabay
The strength of London’s policy environment is coming from the supportiveness and accessibility of Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Recent initiatives have allowed businesses to test out financial products and services in a proposed environment that is exempt from standard regulations.
Notably, the FCA launched over the summer the regulatory sandbox, which is designed to foster fintech innovation while remaining under the supervision of the UK&8217;s financial regulator.
In November, the authority unveiled the 18 fintech companies constituting the sandbox&8217;s first batch.
Among the companies selected, Billon, Otonomos, Nivaura, Epiphyte, Govcoin, SETL and BitX are three ventures applying #blockchain #technology to varied areas in financial services.
Billon is an e-money platform based on blockchain technology that facilitates the secure transfer and holding of funds using a mobile app. BitX and Epiphyte provide cross-border money transfer services powered by blockchain technology. Govcoin, a technology provider that has partnered with the Department of Work and Pensions, is exploring the feasibility of making mobile emergency payments using blockchain technology. Otonomos offers a platform that represents private companies’ shares electronically on the blockchain, enabling them to manage shareholdings, conduct bookbuilding online and facilitate transfers. And Nivaura uses automation and blockchain for issuance and lifecycle management of private placement securities.
SETL provides a smart-card enabled retail payment system based on its OpenCSD distributed ledger technology. The company has recently raised US$ 39.5 million from angel investors, according to Bloomberg.
In November, SETL, Deloitte and Metro Bank successfully tested a new contactless payment card that enables retail payments to be processed and settled almost instantly by using blockchain technology. The car is expected to go into commercial product by the end of 2017.
Blockchain ventures are thriving in the UK, thanks to its financial regulator. “London is a financial center for fintech, and regulators get enormous credit for that,” Peter Randall, CEO at SETL, told Bloomberg.
Epiphyte, which moved from San Francisco to London, said the decision was influenced by the FCA&8217;s welcoming approach toward fintech.
According to Edan Yago, CEO of Epiphyte, the FCA has &8220;a better understanding of how to drive innovation than other regulators. Sandbox or no, the regulation in the UK was superior.&8221;
Similarly to Epiphyte, Italian startup Euklid plans to move its headquarters to London, naming the &8220;lighter regulatory environment&8221; and large pool of investors.
Originally founded in July 2015, Euklid&8217;s goal is to create a completely autonomous and transparent investment bank run by artificial intelligence and that does not charge clients management or entry fees of any kind.
The startup selected London&8217;s Level39 as its new center of operations where it will implement its international strategies.
Last month, British state-owned Royal Mint announced a new partnership with Chicago-based CME Group to build a gold bullion trading market using blockchain technology. The platform, set to launch in 2017, will see the Royal Mint issue Royal Mint Gold (RMG), a digital record of ownership for gold stored at a bullion vault storage facility. It intends to disrupt the way traders and investors trade, execute and settle gold, providing greater efficiency, speed and lower operational costs.
London Blockchain Week in January 2017 will dedicate an entire week to blockchain and distributed ledger technology. On January 20, the Blockchain Week will kick off with the Hack-The-Block Blockchain Hackathon which will run until January 22. The challenge will focus on using blockchain technology in practical solutions.
On January 23 and 24, the Blockchain Conference will cover the latest trends and will feature presentations from top industry experts. Topics will include smart contracts, Ethereum and BigchainDB. Blockchain Week will finish on January 25 and 26 with two workshops. (Fintechnews Readers will get 20% Discount with Code &8220;FTSW&8221;)
Featured image via Pixabay.
The post Blockchain In London: An Overview appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News – FintechNewsCH.
Getting an #installment loan for high-value transactions at the point of sale is nothing new. Venmoing (yes, it’s a verb now) a friend for your share of last night’s pizza is not a big deal either. But what if instead of a pizza, you need to pay someone for aRead More
Bank Innovation
A hedge fund that gives away all of its data to people it doesn’t know and still stays private. A virtual lab for smarter business solutions. Smart sales conducted from a smartphone with its own virtual assistant—these are all artificial intelligence projects expanding right now, and these are just theRead More
Bank Innovation
#Walmart, in partnership with Green Dot, today announced “Prize Savings,” a cash rewards savings program conducted through its Walmart #MoneyCard product. Walmart and Green Dot, which issues the retailer’s cards, partnered with national organization Commonwealth on the offering, a firm which has created PLS (Prize-Linked Savings) programs that have generatedRead More
Bank Innovation
PayPal is partnering with financial #technology provider FIS and Citigroup in order to provide better, faster, stronger digital payments to all users involved—financial institutions, payment processors, and banking customers, it was announced today. “It’s great that our clients can now extend this capability to their customers through PayPal,” says DougRead More
Bank Innovation
With the end of the year approaching, the amount of predictions for #2017 is steadily increasing. How will the industry develop and what will be the next big thing? Although A.I. (Artificial Intelligence), #Blockchain, RegTech are buzzwords everyone is talking about, one can foresee the next #Fintech #trends more realistically by looking at the current developments. Exactly they will determine the course for the next year. Three areas are of special interest
More SME #banking: Many Fintechs focused in 2016 solely on two customer groups: either the biggest banks or the private end customers. Many SMEs, however, had respectable profits. The issue is that digital financial products from payment providers and company credits to goods financing are missing.
These companies are too big for peer-to-peer lending and a traditional banking credit is costly and lengthy. More and more Fintechs are detecting the needs of SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) and are beginning to offer them solutions. The startup Valendo f.e., originally intended as digital pawn shop, is now offering an additional service of merchandise financing for online-retailers – an intelligent step for both the merchants and the company. Another example is the Fintech iwoca from the UK that offers tailormade loans for SME businesses (in the UK 20% of all SME loans are mediated by online-suppliers). In 2017, we will see a significant expansion of these services for SMEs through innovative Fintechs.
More B2B-solutions: In 2016, Fintechs grew up. In 2015, it was still difficult for Fintechs to find any open door within a bank. Today, more and more financial institutions are cooperating with Fintech companies that are faster and more efficient than the company-owned IT-departments. There is hardly any bank that has no digital lab to emulate fintechs. The consequence: The Fintech companies are continually improving their business models to meet the higher requirements. One example is the Berlin-based Fintech company FinReach: With its fully-digital account switching kit, it has already more than 100 German bank customers and is now starting its internationalization.
The big number of partner banks is a clear vote of confidence. This kind of trust is necessary if one wants to be successful in the B2B-industry. Not only that, but the industry requires professional employees. Ex-bankers with longstanding experience in the financial industry, including former board members, are now working for established Fintechs. The cool students may be the ones that invent a new pocketmoney app, but successful Fintechs have grown up. This growth will continue with even more strength in 2017, especially through the demands of complex B2B models.
More complex business models: Not only employees have become more professional, but also the setting of Fintechs itself. While the first ones started as hyped business models without a real business case, dependent on user’s goodwill, nowadays no Fintech starts without having applied for the necessary licenses from authorities and conducting extensive tests before launching. Instead of a “lean startup”, it is now from zero to a hundred. solarisBank, a tech platform with a full banking license, got its banking license before launching &8211; in the record time of only 9 months from the German Bafin.
Elinvar on the other hand has a B2B2C approach and offers private asset managers all the necessary modules to manage their portfolio digitally. With the help of an algorithm that can be fed with individual data, the asset manager is able to take care of a customer’s portfolio faster and in a more efficient way. B2B2C is not easy, because it requires on one hand the supplier’s trust and on the other hand must be well received by consumers. Moreover, it requires a thorough preparation of the product. 2017 will surprise us with more complex and high-quality Fintech models.
At least one thing was demonstrated in 2016: Fintech was and is not only a hype, but a development that needs to be taken seriously and drives the digitization and transformation of the entire financial industry. With new customer groups and new business models, 2017 has the chance to make Fintech accessible to even more professional fields. The course is set, now it is all dependent on the right drivers.
The post The Fintech Trends for 2017: SME Banking and More appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News – FintechNewsCH.
Are you really sure I am not a dog? Maybe I am a really smart dog with an AI implant pretending to be a human. Disclosure, #Daily #Fintech is written by a stealth mode AI venture as a proof of concept. Seriously folks, you cannot know my #Identity. To readRead More
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