During the last week in August, Noah’s Ark found a new home in Houston. Unfortunately, it didn’t deliver medical supplies. Between August 25th and 29th, Hurricane Harvey dropped an almost biblical 52 inches of rain on beleaguered Houston, flooding vast swaths of the metropolitan area. GPS data indicates the weight of that 33 trillion gallons of water depressed the surface of the affected region by 2 centimeters.[1]

As a follow up to last week's newsletter, Breached, the Equifax breach likely will have regulatory effects on FinTech that go beyond the credit-scoring business itself. In an ironic but not unsurprising development, legacy institutions questioned new technologies in relationship to legacy problems.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), often described as the central bank for central banks, recently published its take on FinTech. The BIS's Basel Committee on Banking Supervision's report, "Implications of fintech developments for banks and bank supervisors," handily summarizes the changing face of banking:

Cancer has been humanity’s most persistent nemesis. Bone fragments and written records indicate that cancer afflicted people in ancient Rome, Greece and Egypt. Today, cancer is America’s second leading killer, closing in on heart disease. It accounts for one quarter of U.S. deaths. [1]

Sky-rocketing drug prices have captured the nation’s attention. President Trump echoes Senator Bernie Sanders when he asserts that drug companies are “getting away with murder.”[1] Republican and Democratic legislators alike assert that the pharmaceutical industry engages in price-fixing and advocate that Medicare should negotiate directly with drug manufacturers to lower costs.

Sky-rocketing drug prices have captured the nation’s attention. President Trump echoes Senator Bernie Sanders when he asserts that drug companies are “getting away with murder.”[1] Republican and Democratic legislators alike assert that the pharmaceutical industry engages in price-fixing and advocate that Medicare should negotiate directly with drug manufacturers to lower costs. 

This week's headline comes from a Bernard Lunn Daily FinTech column, in which he charts three "waves" of FinTech development. Those waves fit my own experience, though some of the milestones I would have picked are different. Click on the chart below to read the article.

I spent a lot of time this week looking at bank websites. That, too, was a look back in time.

No doubt that colored the links I picked. I see in them the tension between the entrenched technology of the past and emerging tech of the future.

Global surveys covering second-quarter 2017 FinTech investments are coming in, and the results bode well for the development of the FinTech ecosystem.

The IMF’s message in its latest global economic forecasts (World Economic Outlook, 7/24/2017) is broadly unchanged from its April version.  The global economic recovery is gaining momentum and broadening in 2017, after a two-year slowdown. Global output is expected to grow by respectively 3.5% and 3.6% this year and next.  However, the IMF states that the projected composition of growth will be slightly different, with slower-than-anticipated growth in the United States compensated by faster growth in the eurozone, Canada, Japan and emerging markets.

It was an eventful July 4th weekend in the Land of Lincoln. The Illinois Senate over-rode Governor Bruce Rauner’s veto to pass its first state budget in over two years. This was the longest state budget impasse in the nation since the Great Depression.
 
Meanwhile, the mean streets of Chicago remained mean. The City recorded 15 homicides during the holiday weekend and over 100 shootings. Although down slightly, Chicago is on pace to record over 700 murders in 2017.