According to a new report by CB Insights the most recent 5 quarters show that big investments in fintech companies from banks has slowed down; banks are instead beginning to develop and update core technology in house; Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase and others have all developed and released their own digital investing and advising services; service provides like Diebold are offering the banks a chance to move all infrastructure online so they can focus on customer facing tools; banks are still working through transformation as almost all have now realized if they do not upgrade legacy tech they will be left behind. Source.
JoinedNov. 30, 2016
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Todd is the host of PitchIt: the fintech startups podcast, a weekly interview show featuring emerging fintech founders and leading venture capitalists. He is responsible for leading the content team which covers fintech through daily & weekly email newsletters, editorial, virtual events, and in-person conferences. He has been covering fintech, banking, and venture capital for more than 15 years, including speaking regularly at industry events.
Mambu has launched a digital marketplace to offer cloud based apps, products and tools for banking; the company will allow for integrations to be done locally or globally; Ben Goldin, Mambu’s head of product and technology, tells Banking Technology, “the marketplace provides an opportunity to present their offerings to institutions and influencers with the Mambu engine powering a composable architecture”; current partners include Onfido, Form3, nCino, Avoka and Experian. Source.
UK based Pia, personal investment assistant, is testing their new aggregator platform to help people find the best digital wealth advisor; “We spent time speaking to people who said we need to launch a product that’s far more accessible, interesting and engaging for somebody that doesn’t have a lot of investing experience and don’t know where to start,” said co-founder James Mackonochie to TearSheet; the difference between Pia and a typical aggregator site is they will use an AI powered chatbot to customize the user experience. Source.
Walmart has expanded their money transfer service to over 200 countries and all their U.S. locations; the expansion is through a partnership with Moneygram; Walmart’s move comes after recent news of Amazon expanding their financial services options for customers; “Money transfer services are like bread at the restaurant for Walmart; it’s negligible revenue for them,” said Daniel Ives, chief strategy officer at GBH Insights tells TearSheet. “The broader strategy is to build up that product arsenal on the consumer side — every Walmart customer globally is an Amazon customer that could be taken away.” Source.
The implementation of GDPR is around the corner as it starts in May across Europe, while most of the regulations will benefit robo advisors the compliance costs could rise significantly; users will be able to ask for all data related to them and all data a rival adviser might have on them, getting this done correctly and efficiently will take time; the customer benefits are high, startups on the other hand might end up getting a lot more costs then anticipated. Source.
Some UK fintech firms are beginning to look at opening offices in other locations across Europe to appeal to young software engineers; Brexit has hurt the market for software engineers in the UK; while the initial evidence is anecdotal UK fintech companies like Curerencycloud are beginning to feel the pressure; Mike Laven, chief executive of Currencycloud, tells the FT, “We understand passporting, regulation and compliance and it will cost us money, but we will sort that out. To me, the London fintech issue is more around having the right people and having very easy access to that.” Source.
2018 has not been kind to the digital currency as it is down 50 percent against the dollar and the first quarter is the second worst on record; regulation, a clampdown in Asia hurting volume and the big price run up in late 2017 have all hurt Bitcoin; the prevailing thought about making fast cash has gone away as the price has dropped; the price today stand just below $7,000, down from a high of $20,000. Source.
Revolut has launched their open API for customers and they have increased their Revolut for Business service; Banking Technology reports that the company said “account owners can generate sandbox and production keys, and set whitelisted IPs as an “extra layer of security”; accounts allow users to send, hold and exchange up to 25 different currencies. Source.
As real time payments have begun banks are finding it a challenge to implement them; how much should banks charge corporate clients for the service and how best to handle legacy infrastructure are two of the main questions they are grappling with; “Banks need to understand how they monetize these services,” Vinay Prabhakar, head of markets strategy for payments at Finastra, said to TearSheet. “Most banks have lucrative credit card programs, so how do they roll out RTP without cannibalizing their credit card models?”; Christopher Ward, PNC Bank’s head of treasury management product management, believes progress is being made and 90 percent of banks will have implemented real time payments by end of 2019. Source.
Abe Smith, founder and CEO of UK based Dealflo tells Banking Technology about the big opportunity for UK fintechs in China; China and the UK have recently formed as closer partnership with Teresa May signing s number of deals and partnerships; three key areas for UK fintechs to focus on include approaching China for the unique market it is, work with a local group or team of advisors and understand the complex data residency programs. Source.