Latest Innovation News: Finextra Research

How regulators have catalysed collaborations and technological innovations

Co-founder and head of client delivery of RegTech Associates, Dr Sian Lewin has urged the financial community to stop thinking of regulators simply as “powerful organisations, here to control our behaviour, and stop us from doing certain things in the name of public interest.”

22 April 2021

News/payments

Apply for the EBAday Fintech Zone by 3rd May

Your final chance to apply for the EBAday Fintech Zone is fast approaching. Apply by Monday 3rd May for the exclusive opportunity to meet and collaborate with leading figures across financial services to drive visibility and engagement with your fintech.

22 April 2021

News/regulation

Will smart divergence set the UK apart post Brexit?

During a panel session for UK Fintech Week 2021, moderator Kristy Duncan, founder and CEO of Women in Payments noted that while the UK and EU benefits from a progressive regulatory regime which favours innovation and competition, fintechs are hindered by regulatory challenges including lack of enforcement and passporting headaches.

21 April 2021

News/startups

Covid-19 has driven digital transformation, not the C-suite

During a panel for UK Fintech Week 2021, Jess Bartos, investment manager, Albion VC, quipped that the joke going around the tech community at the beginning of the pandemic was “who has been driving digital transformation in your enterprise, the CEO, the CIO, the CTO or C19?”

21 April 2021

News/regulation

Shearman & Sterling: 'Remove the straitjacket of statutory rules' for UK fintech

During a panel for UK Fintech Week 2021, Barnabas Reynolds, global head of financial services group, Shearman & Sterling emphasised that to build trust in the system and allow space for fintech innovation, that the focus of supervisory systems should be on risk and not unnecessary code or control.

20 April 2021

News/regulation

EBAday 2021: Will 2021 see proactive regulators eschew their reactive reputation?

Spurring a seismic shift in the way financial services operate and are supervised, the pandemic forced regulators to reassess strategy and increasingly adopt new technologies to modernise their processes.

16 April 2021

News/payments

EBAday 2021: Finding European synergy in the transition from Open Banking to Open Finance

Pioneering a defined strategy in 2020, the European Commission outlined its intention to adopt a legislative proposal for a new Open Finance Framework by mid-2022.

09 April 2021

News/people

Fintech billionaires revealed: Who is on the 2021 rich list?

According to Forbes, a new billionaire was minted every 17 hours in 2020.

08 April 2021

News/cloud

How cloud enables banking transformation towards contextual finance

Companies adapting to the new normal brought on by the pandemic have been forced to undergo a digital shift toward contactless payments and a surge in online transactions. As a result, many are looking to Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) to enable innovative financial and payments services that can be embedded into digital apps and products. Further, the deployment of BaaS enables a faster time to market for more personalised propositions.

01 April 2021

News/payments

EBAday 2021: VC investment fuelled European fintech throughout 2020

While total investment across EMEA dropped from $61.5 billion in 2019 to $14.4 billion in 2020, VC investment remained robust, propelling the region to an annual record high of $9.3 billion. Europe saw the majority of the region’s VC investment with $4.8 billion flowing directly into European fintechs throughout the year.

26 March 2021

News/crypto

Cryptocurrency’s complex quest toward building institutional infrastructure

If the normalisation of Bitcoin and crypto-at-large is to be achieved, there are fundamental challenges that this ‘non-analogue’ asset will be faced with. During Citi’s Digital Money Symposium, panellists of the ‘Institutional Infrastructure for Crypto’ session explored the obstacles crypto firms have faced while trying to carve out a footing within the institutional ecosystem.

25 March 2021

News/payments

EBAday 2021: The road to payments transformation

After the success of EBAday 2020, the event will again run in digital format on 28-30 June 2021 for its sixteenth year, welcoming a host of board directors, chief executive officers and payments and technology heads from Europe’s leading banks.

12 March 2021

News/inclusion

Why a cookie-cutter approach to VC and funding hinders diversity

During the ‘Women in FinTech: Reshaping the Industry’ session at Citi’s Digital Money Symposium 2021, the panel tackled thorny issues surrounding securing funding to startups founded by females and those from minority backgrounds.

09 March 2021

News/inclusion

IWD 2021: No more talking, it's time for action on female representation in fintech

2020 may have been a year of challenge, but it proved that above all else, digital resilience will remain foundational, not only to female financial inclusion, but to female representation across the fintech sector.

08 March 2021

News/sustainable

Fintech’s role in Paris Agreement success and restoration of nature at scale

According to the UNFCCC High-Level Climate Champions and the Marrakech Partnership Climate Action Pathways report published at the end of 2020, certain notable breakthroughs are moving key sectors closer to the 2050 zero emissions goal, in an attempt to avert the impact of climate change.

02 March 2021

News/sustainable

F10 and New Energy Nexus unite to nurture green fintech

F10, fintech incubator and accelerator, will collaborate with New Energy Nexus to form the first global green and climate fintech program, bringing decarbonisation of financial services to the cutting edge of innovation.

01 March 2021

News/regulation

The Kalifa Review’s five-point plan to bolster UK Fintech

The long awaited Kalifa Review of UK Fintech has been released, outlining a comprehensive plan to support and bolster the sector’s significant presence across the globe. Led by Ron Kalifa OBE, the in-depth review was launched almost a year ago as a component of Rishi Sunak’s first budget.

26 February 2021

News/wealth

InvestCloud accelerates past $1bn valuation

InvestCloud has completed a recapitalisation that values the wealth platform at $1 billion. As part of the deal, two additional businesses are being rolled into InvestCloud, immediately pushing the valuation of the combined business up over $2 billion.

02 February 2021

News/crypto

Nordea: No deployment of CBDCs in 2021 but greater clarity is coming

2021 will see further clarity offered on the development of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) but deployment is still some way off, according to Ville Sointu, head of emerging technology at Nordea.

21 January 2021

News/devops

Open Banking year three: Insights from the CMA9

The UK banking industry had its hands full in 2020 as institutions had to respond to lockdowns and other restrictions on business activity designed to curb the spread of Covid-19. What effect did this have on the ongoing adoption of Open Banking? In Finextra’s annual review, we look at how Open Banking has grown, what still needs to improve and what will happen next.

13 January 2021