For this week, we bring you further opinion and insights from fintech industry experts, to keep you up to date with the latest debates, solutions and trends. Dive into this week’s topics, focused on regulatory frameworks and cybersecurity, Q4’20 fintech investments, neobanks, CBDCs, tech investments, SaaS offerings, and subscription services provided by fintech. Happy reading!
Regulators and cybersecurity
In a recent analysis piece by Marc Laliberte, a senior security analyst at WatchGuard, the issue of safety and security provided by encryption backdoors is discussed. With governments pushing tech companies to get access to private data and decrypt all messages on all devices, the consequences can have drastic effects. The main concern rises from the fact that by providing such a “golden key” for regulators, the system will be vulnerable to cyber attacks. Read more
Q4’20 European Fintech Investments
According to a late review by Isabel Woodford, fintech journalist at Sifted.eu, Q4’20 is off to a slow start in terms of European investments for fintech. VC BlackFin further reports that compared to September’s numbers, October has seen no deal above €50m. In total, European fintech startups attracted over €4.3bn ($3.4bn) in the midst of the pandemic, with payments and B2B fintechs proving to be especially popular this year with investors. Read more
Neobanks on the verge of losing momentum
Rory Stirling, partner at Connect Ventures, explores the rapid demise of neobanks, with highlights such as Monzo and Revolut’s increasing annual losses, N26’s withdrawal from key markets and Starling’s introduction of negative interest rates. One main contributor to this trend is the increased use of open banking services, which act as an independent software intermediary, helping clients make better financial decisions and have a more complete overview on their management of money. Read more
Central bank digital currencies (CBDC) developments
Mark Binns, CEO of BIGG Digital Assets, highlights why with the rising trend of banks and financial institutions offering users central bank digital currencies comes with numerous implications. Binns argues that users don’t fully experience the privacy and democratic freedom a truly decentralized digital currency provides, due to lack of decentralized wealth. Read more
Tech spendings amid Covid-19
Jarod Greene, vice president, product marketing – Apptio, and general manager – TBM Council, describes the shift in business priorities in times of pandemic, with more focus on technology and innovations. The Technology Business Management (TBM) framework offers insights into the best practices around communicating the cost, quality and value of IT investments to business partners, and highlights the key areas where businesses can cut costs (such as cloud, vendor spendings, labour spendings, investment spendings). Read more
Fintech & SaaS solutions
According to Adena Friedman, CEO at Nasdaq Stock Market, Covid-19 presents further opportunities for SaaS adoptions within businesses, with new implementations in terms of Cloud computing platforms and advanced data management solutions. Friedman further emphasized that although digitalization is booming for financial transactions across capital markets, many of the workflows are still conducted in paper format. However, the pandemic is forcing businesses to optimize and adapt their businesses. Read more
Fintech Subscription Models
TechCrunch highlights the growing trend of subscription models for the American fintech market. Due to the fact that more US citizens have worked from home and spent time on digital platforms, research shows that spending on subscription services had more than tripled since March, which could further mean a new customer base for the fintech sector as well. Read more
Fintech Cohort for Black and Latinx Americans
With the tumultuous political disputes in the US, a new cohort of fintechs has emerged, with the aims of accelerating progress and delivering change for Black and Latinx Americans. As part of the movement, CHIP (Changing How Individuals Prosper) platform joined, which provides access to Black and Latinx financial professionals, followed also by two new neobanks Tenth, an “unapologetically black” digital neobank focused on enabling democratization of financial services for customers, and Greenwood company, designed to offer “modern banking for the culture”. Read more
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