As the adoption of innovative technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Blockchain, etc. increases, it impacts the rate at which the Fintech ecosystem evolves and affects different markets. 

Having discussed the very best Fintech events and conferences for this year, and our suggestions on the 5 best newsletters for Fintech innovators, we thought it would be beneficial by presenting the 20 best Fintech blogs and publications that you may like to follow to keep up with the latest news and developments in the fast changing financial services space.
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​The sharing economy is defined as “the peer to peer based activity of obtaining, giving, or sharing access to good and services”. Alternative names for this phenomenon include gig economy, platform economy, access economy, and collaborative consumption.
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Managing regulations and compliance is becoming increasingly difficult for banks because it is time consuming and expensive, experts claim. For example, when asked by a journalist about the difficulties for top banks in managing compliance costs, a top investor commented: “(…) that is a massive challenge for these banks.”

Non-performing loans are an area of concern for banks especially in tough economic times. NPL portfolios will impact profitability in two areas: 1) loss of the value of the loan not recovered and 2) ongoing management using labor intensive and manual workflows. 
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2016, a look in the rearview mirror

In mid-2016, the marketplace lending sector experienced some turmoil leading to increased scrutiny from regulators and institutional investors’ concerns about the securitization process and the quality of the underlying loans. However, this slowdown was temporary and personal marketplace loans globally grew by 210% (+64% for small business marketplace loans). 

In recent times, everywhere one turns, disruption seems to impacting every aspect of the diversified financial services space, leaving no sector unturned whether it is in lending, borrowing, alternative finance or investment space. Financial technology coupled with social media input is altering the dynamic of the sector in pushing costs lower while creating a more efficient but equally more personalized user experience for investors and borrowers.

As new technologies emerge, they tend to enhance the existing ecosystem by converging with other technologies, eventually transforming various industries. Within the realm of Fintech, the two technologies that are on the verge of transforming it are Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

This is the time of the year when you should take your agenda and carefully pick the events that you want to attend to or speak at. We know that and we are also aware that it could be quite difficult because the number of events is so large that it could be tricky to select the ones that are worth to consider. For this reason we decided to prepare for you an extensive but well selected list of the essential fintech events of 2017. Enjoy.