On October 18, 2016 the Malaysian Central Bank published its financial technology regulatory sandbox framework to enable the live experimentation of fintech solutions in the country. This initiative echoes the statement issued by the Indonesian Central Bank in late September: “Next month we will launch a fintech office [and] establish a special task force that will coordinate with other fintech offices". In this post, we will get an update on what's happened since they've been deployed.
Insurance has remained fundamentally unchanged for centuries. It has been described as one of the least trusted industry sectors with the lowest level of user satisfaction. Accordingly, to Daniel Schreiber, Lemonade CEO, the cause of this consumer unfriendliness is in the traditional structure of insurance: every dollar insurance company pays for their customers is directly taken away from their profits, which makes insurance company’s interest directly contrary to its customer’s interest.
Financial technology adoption has been incredibly fast in the most advanced economies, but it’s a totally different story for what concerns emerging countries, where the penetration of digital finance services is still very low. The good news for those economies, and for those looking to do business there, is that the potential growth is now extraordinary, thanks to the level of smartphone penetration.
A ‘Fintech Sandbox’ is a technology environment where companies/firms would work in close partnership with regulators to develop their ideas and technology without the red tape that may inhibit their potential growth. In the UK, France, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia, regulators have already or are currently laying the groundwork for a such a Sandbox environment that gives the firms the ability to test a new product or business model with a limited launch, without going through the full regulatory process.
Germany recently received quite bad news that could affect its economy and financial system. In order to settle the claims in the diesel emissions scandal, Volkswagen agreed to pay about $15 billion to the US authorities and Deutsche Bank, the country’s largest bank, received a $14 billion charge (pending final settlement), again from the US authorities, for mis-selling residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) in the 2008 financial crisis. However, we will see its not all bad news for Germany. In the second quarter of 2016, the investments received by VC-backed German financial technology companies, have been 80% higher than those for UK ventures, and its fintech ecosystem is now growing at a good pace.
The benefits of technology applied to existing processes making them more efficient or effective should be very practical. However, it’s easy to get lost in over hyped terms such as ‘fintech’, ‘peer-to-peer markets’, ‘crowdfunding’ and forget what the practical benefit is.
“In the U.S., 33 percent of millennials (ages 15-34) believe that within next five years they will not even need a bank”. - McKinsey & Company. Global Payments 2015: A Healthy Industry Confronts Disruption.
It is difficult to conceive a reality where banks stand redundant and, while the probability of such a happening is highly unlikely, a large number of individuals globally are adopting a new set of expectations for the infrastructure that supports their pecuniary activities on a p2p, p2b level, e-commerce, or for cross border transactions. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) last week announced the launch of a financial technology sandbox, to allow banks to test new innovative products that do not yet meet compliance standards. The new regime is valid as of September 6.
Fintech has not been on the radar in Spain long, it was long not known by most of the people and with just 50 financial technology companies, and with few successes. But things have improved quite rapidly and accordingly to Fintech Radar Spain 2016, prepared by Finnovista, the sector can now count 208 startups, with a 400% increase in just three years, and few players that are making waves.
The Global Fintech Hubs Federation (GFHF), has been announced on August 25, 2016, on initiative of Innotribe and Innovate Finance, to foster innovation across the world’s financial services industry and help startups and institutions gain visibility into new markets. Stakeholders from more than 20 cities around the world, including London, Shanghai, Frankfurt, Istanbul and Nairobi, have already decided to join the federation, with more groups to come.
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