With 2021 drawing to a close, we take a look back at our most viewed long reads over the course of the past year.

10. Why Biden’s Executive Order is a green light for US open banking

Paige McNamee, Finextra reporter, covered Biden’s ‘Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy’ in July 2021 and the impact it could have on US open banking.

9. 5 predictions for the use of AI in fintech

Adam Lieberman, head of artificial intelligence and machine learning at Finastra, discussed how harnessing data will be key to bolstering business strategies and enabling new areas of growth.

8. The future of payments

Peter Wickes, general manager enterprise, EMEA at Worldpay, explored how consumers now becoming more comfortable with payment trends and how we can expect to see continued innovation and acceleration in the payments industry.

7. 6 fintech and insurtech predictions from a pan-European VC

Michele Foradori, investment director at BlackFin Tech wrote about new frontiers for payments, B2B SaaS momentum, European fintech IPOs, lending, wealth management and SME tools.

6. 3 ‘beyond banking’ opportunities banks can’t ignore 

Annerie Vreugdenhil, former chief innovation officer at ING, discussed how financial institutions can benefit from new business models that are more relevant for customers who need banking – not banks, and three ‘sweet spots’ they can explore to bring value to customers.

5. How AI is powering the future of financial services

Kevin Levitt, global business development, financial services, NVIDIA covered how financial institutions are using AI-powered solutions to unlock revenue growth opportunities, minimise operating expenses, and automate manually intensive processes.

4. What’s going on with Binance? The low-down on the drama-ridden crypto exchange

Reporting on one of the biggest stories of the year, Paige McNamee, Finextra reporter, broke down why Binance has been garnering all the wrong types of attention over the past 24 months.

3. Financial regulations and compliance: what changes to expect in 2021

Rachel Woolley, global director of financial crime at Fenergo, explored how the aftermath of the pandemic, the industry has no choice but to start working better together to tackle the industry-side issue of financial crime.

2. Capital One: what its 390 million USD fine tells us about AML regulation

Paige McNamee, Finextra reporter, explored the impact of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, announcing that Capital One would be required to pay a hefty $390 million penalty for AML violations under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA).

1. The 3 key risk, compliance, and governance challenges for finance to tackle in 2021

Ian Raine, VP Product Management, iManage took the top spot this year, with his piece on how financial services professionals across asset management, investment and commercial banking, insurance, and other subsectors create and manage mission critical information that guides their most important business decisions.