Get comfortable outside your comfort zone
by Accenture & Oxford Economics
Surveying technology executives across the financial services sector, this study uncovers the sentiment of retail banking towards technological adoption in finance. The predominant issues facing retail banking are seamless integration and compliance-based concerns, but respondents concede that such digitisation is necessary to remain competitive amidst incoming fintech and non-payments sector firms.
Venture Capital Report
by Dow Jones
Overviewing the fourth quarter of 2018, this report quantifies European venture capital highlighting a strong finish to the year for M&A’s, closing as the third best year on record. It also underlines the unabashed investment perception towards the UK amidst Brexit drama, as they received the “lion’s share” of VC investment in the last quarter.
The economic impact of lending through funding circle
By Funding Circle
Overviewing the lending climate across the four markets Funding Circle operate in (UK, US, Germany, The Netherlands), this report tracks the success of their P2P lending platform against other alternative finance options and traditional finance. Noting the unaccommodating attitudes of banks towards small business, SMEs are looking more towards alternative finance than ever. Data also revealed jobs created, gross value added and taxes generated indirectly by the platform.
A Review into the Merits of Open Banking
by Department of Finance Canada
This paper reviews the benefits and risks of open banking implementation in Canada with the luxury of oversight across Europe. Unveiling the multitude of benefits for consumers, businesses and financial service providers alike, the culmination asks whether this is worth the added cybersecurity and privacy protection breach risks.
Advice Initial Coin Offerings and Crypto-Assets
by ESMA
Aiming to conquer regulatory uncertainty in crypto-assets, this advisory report propagates a tech-agnostic approach to asset classification and regulation. It also discusses how existing crypto-assets could be classified under MFiD, tabling the risk exposure of those that do not clearly fall under existing regulatory protection.
Tech trends 2019
by Fleishman Hillard
Providing discussion points on the main technologies set for wide-scale adoption in 2019, this exploration unveils several tech trends that have the potential to disrupt businesses across a multitude of sectors, with many directly concerning finance services already. It earmarks the ways in which these technologies can disrupt and revolutionise business.
