FinTech Leaders

posted by Collin Canright on October 11, 2016 - 9:55am

The leaders in FinTech and banking are featured as American Banker releases its annual list of FinTech companies to watch, and Burnmark releases an excellent and comprehensive report on challenger banks throughout the world. Take a look, too, at a future without cash in this week's links.

20 FinTech companies to watch
From Currencycloud’s customizable APIs to BookingBug’s appointment management system, American Banker’s round-up features FinTech firms that are solving banking industry problems one platform at a time.

Burnmark’s 2016 report on Challenger Banking
The October 2016 report provides insights in the changing values of Generation Z, highlights the impact changing international banking relations, and the shift in customer acquisition challenges.

Innovate finance publish autumn statement recommendations to government for UK FinTech
In a post for Medium, George Hanias and Dan Morgan of Innovate Finance laid out their recommendations following the EU referendum results. Among them are continued access to capital and ensuring ongoing support for FinTech initiatives.

Smaller banks open their eyes to tech long embraced by big banks
First Federal Lakewood is set to roll out an app that speeds up the small business loan process to five minutes on a smartphone. It’s the latest small financial institution to embrace the technology that their larger competitors have used, writes Jeremy Nobile for Crain’s Cleveland Business, adding that the spending on these improvements is expected to grow.

Collaboration between FinTech startups and traditional banks is surging: Mario Aquino, McKinsey Ventures
Mario Aquino, managing partner at McKinsey Ventures Asia Pacific, sat down with Anirvan Ghosh of Deal Street Asia to discuss whether FinTech opportunities are overhyped, if FinTech will have a great impact on consumers and when FinTech will begin to simplify money management for developing nations.

Consumer use of cash slides as alternative payment methods take hold
Cash payments dipped below 50 percent in 2014 in the United Kingdom, signaling the growth of contactless card use, according to Finextra. The ATM network predicts a 34 percent decrease in the number of cash payments to 11.3 billion by 2025.

Imagining a cashless world
Picking up on Wired’s previous reporting in May 2016, The New Yorker takes another look at Sweden’s declining use of cash and how going cashless could cut expenses and risk for banks while complicating the lives of consumers.

A big Dutch bank is replacing 5,800 people with machines, at a cost of $2 billion
Dutch lender ING will save approximately $1 billion annually by cutting nearly 6,000 jobs and changing the roles of 1,200 employees. “We have to adapt. The consequence is that we can do it with less people,” Raymond Vermeulen, an ING spokesperson, told Quartz.

THE BLOCKCHAIN WATCH

Blockchain will be used by 15 percent of big banks by 2017
A major shift is underway among startups and big banks want to use blockchain technology to make traditional bank processes cheaper, faster and more efficient. The movement toward greater blockchain adoption is mostly happening at medium and large-sized institutions, and those banks are largely focusing on consumer lending, retail payments and reference data, according to Forbes.

Banks test blockchain for syndicated loans with symbiont R3
Nine international banks, including U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo, are testing blockchain and smart contract technologies to see if they can improve the syndicated loan market, according to American Banker. They’re seeking proof that processing loan data exclusive on a blockchain could slash costs to maintain individual lending systems.

Blockchain: a solution looking for a problem
As new financial technologies show significant promise, some applications are either totally of course or a bit naive, asserts Alexander Lipton, Connection Science Fellow at MIT and adjunct professor of mathematics at New York University, in a post for Risk.net. Expectations of the technology, in his opinion, seem to be higher than blockchain can actually achieve.

US Central Bank Chair: Blockchain could have ‘significant’ impact
During an appearance before the House of Representatives committee, Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen said the fed wasn’t investigating blockchain applications, but she did remark that the technology could have a great deal of influence over payments and banking in the future, according to CoinDesk. “It could have very significant implications for the payments system and the conduct of business. We want to foster innovation. I think innovation using these technologies could be extremely helpful and bring benefits to society.”

Blockchain Presentation Draws 250 Businesspeople in Chicago
At a recent event in Chicago's innovation hub 1871, William Mougayar, investor, startup advisor and author of The Business Blockchain, discussed the potential for blockchain to streamline database management, upend third-party authentication, and the overall infancy of blockchain implementation.