Real-time #payments could save people, especially poor people, billions in late fees, check cashing costs or payday loans. Brookings says the Fed could simply require #banks to permit immediate access to #consumer deposits with a regulatory change.
Financial Technology
Keeping track of #credit #card #benefits can be a tedious task, at least that’s what #Sift is banking on. The app helps customers redeem and track credit card benefits as well as files automated claims on its users’ behalf, when necessary. Check out Bank Innovation’s interview with Sift CEO Abhinav Dubey to learn about new […]
Bank Innovation
Following on from my previous blog introducing the new year in the #Fintech Innovation programme, I wanted to turn the focus onto the emergence of #RegTech—technologies that address the challenge and cost of regulatory compliance. Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen RegTech arise as an entity in its own right. It’s a welcome development: financial regulation’s been increasing in complexity since 2008…and so has the compliance challenge. Looking ahead, with new technologies like #blockchain and smart contracts coming into play, the pace of regulatory change will accelerate even more.
RegTech has two aims: increasing the effectiveness and the efficiency of compliance. Both are critical. The cost of non-compliance, e.g. fines, legal bills and compensation is estimated by Standard & Poor at £19.5 billion over the past year for the UK alone. Similarly, the cost of compliance is a heavy burden on the industry, somewhere between £10 billion and £20 billion in the UK. There are hidden costs too. Increased bureaucracy damages customer retention and onboarding, while complex regulation can get in the way of innovation.
Continue reading the post RegTech: what is it and what are the benefits? on Accenture Banking Blog.
#Blockchain is undoubtedly a buzzword nowadays – same as #FinTech. However, it is often difficult to comprehend, and in fact, many people do not have a clue what is it all about. Being at the heart of FinTech and having very strong potential to disrupt and revolutionize the way our world functions now, the concept of blockchain definitely needs a proper understanding.
The Blockchain Begins
It all started back in 2008. Short after the Lehman Brothers’ collapse, when the world was in a global financial decay and stock markets had hit historic lows, a person or a group of persons called Satoshi Nakamoto came into the global arena to disrupt it.
The notion of blockchain materialized in the form of a white paper which described the now well-know #cryptocurrency of #Bitcoin and the underlying concept on which it operates. The blockchain.
The Concept
Generally speaking, the blockchain is a distributed public ledger. Instead of data being accounted and stored on a central server’s database, it is encrypted, and a copy is kept on every node connected to the network. There are as many copies of the ledgers as there are nodes connected to the network.
Where’s the Revolution?
Blockchain uses its distributed network approach to revolutionize the process of verification and transfer ownership. This provides a lot of advantages over the current centralized network systems, and here we are speaking about security and preservation of data. Basically, it cuts out the middlemen.
Nowadays, more or less everything happens via centralised networks – governments, #banks, you name it (=the middlemen). They appear to be doing quite good with their job, but in case a central server’s integrity gets compromised, the data stored within can be hacked.
Yet, if the database gets distributed amongst multiple nodes, it becomes much harder to hack it. Anyone wishing to alter the data in a blockchain network would need simultaneously to modify the ledger on 51% of all the nodes on the network. If they do not get altered simultaneously, the blockchain nodes will automatically recognize that the modified copy is a forgery and correct the changes.
Also, it is important to note that each block in the blockchain is encrypted. This makes it impossible to change after it gets authenticated and chained to the previous link.
Privacy
Living in the age of Internet, privacy is often an issue. In fact, many of us do not know how often we are being monitored by various institutions (take it governmental or private ones). For example, various online services often monitor and track our usage, and later use that information for marketing or other purposes.
In case of blockchain, all transactions are identified by a code, hence, the actual user identity is kept private. Only those with the appropriate code or key can access the relevant information.
The anonymity has obvious advantages. Records cannot be stolen, and accounts cannot be frozen, as there is no central power. Because no chief command exists, nobody has the authority or access to facilitate these #types of actions. Of course, this raises some underlying threats and issues as well, but let’s stick with the #benefits as for now.
Benefits
Undoubtedly there are lost of benefits, applications and added value that comes with the blockchain #technology. Nevertheless, I would like to put an emphasis on 3 of them regarding the financial system.
Videos worth watching:
Bettina Warburg: “How the Blockchain Will Radically Transform The Economy”
Alex Tapscott: “Blockchain is Eating Wall Street”
[linkedinbadge URL=”https://www.linkedin.com/in/linasbeliunas” connections=”off” mode=”icon” liname=”Linas Beliūnas”] is Foreign Business Development & Sales at Paysera and this article was originally published here.
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