Competition issues in the Area of Financial Technology (FinTech)
By European Parliament
Competition has heated up in the fintech space between start-ups, traditional financial institutions, and big techs, and this report looks at challenges in this competitive landscape. These challenges centre around anti-competitive behavior, which this study qualifies as possibly being the result of network effects of using online platforms, the use of customer data, algorithms, and interoperability and standardisation.
Insurance beyond digital: The rise of ecosystems and platforms
By McKinsey
Overviewing the insurance sector to assess the current and potential impact of fintech disruption, this report highlights the lessons that can be learnt from comparative sectors on revamping their business models and tracks the potential journey from traditional offerings to inclusive ecosystems. It exposes the benefits that this traditionally slow moving industry could reap from insurtech innovation and business model redefinition.
Quarterly European Venture Capital report: Q1 2019
By dealroom.co
Notable results from this overview of European VC in the first quarter of 2019 are that the quarter eclipsed the record for investment in Europe and mega rounds are hitting record levels. Additionally, Q1 2019 saw peak activity in the UK, Germany, France, as well as the remainder of Europe.
Sizing the Impact Investing Market
By the Global Impact Investing Network
This white paper gives estimates as to the size of the global impact investing market, concluding that over 1,340 organisations manage USD 502 billion in assets across the globe. Other notable findings are that most impact investing orgs are relatively small, around half of which manage less than USD 29 million, and on the other hand over 800 asset managers account for around 50% of AUM in the industry while development financial institutions manage a little over a quarter of industry assets.
Behavioural study on the digitalisation of the marketing and distance selling of retail financial services
By European Commission
Tackling the exponentially growing digital financial services offerings, this report studies the consumer experience and notes the behavioural reactions to different marketing techniques and advertising practices. It notes the legally questionable means by which some services are being flaunted, but found that overall digital marketing is benefitting consumers with an increased range of services an information. Interestingly it found that prompting a user to ‘hurry’ caused them to take longer to reach their decision.
Crypto-assets regulators directory
By Financial Stability Board
After cursorily addressing the key benefits of fintech across a swathe of sectors, this study hypothesises the future anticompetitive issues this movement is likely to encounter. Some concerns that are raised include the development of oligopolies due to first mover advantages creating few powerful platforms/ecosystems etc, and also over the collection, analysis and bundling of increasingly important datasets. Read more
Mobile Payment Report 2019
By PwC
This short report gives an overview of the mobile payments market in Germany and highlights the views of Germans when it comes to the payment method. It also notes that cash is still the dominant payment method in the country, and that while over half of Germans plan to use mobile payments in the future, the payment facility will complement rather than replace cash.
