World Fintech Day just passed and it allowed for reflection on how much fintech has disrupted traditional finance to date; the answer is that fintech has yet to bring about the revolution it promised; regulation is one reason with financial services being one of the most regulated industries in the world; a recent survey from RSM of almost 800 companies found banking to be one of the least innovative, textiles were seen as more innovative; David Birch writes in Forbes, “If there is going to be such a revolution, if new technology is allowed to create new business models and new market structures, and if those new structures are to reduce the costs of intermediation, then we need the regulators to create the space for innovation. And perhaps, just perhaps, they have: open banking is the first step on an open data road that may ultimately not only revolutionise payments, banking and credit but… everything.” Forbes.
