How Banking-as-a-Service is shaking up the fintech ecosystem
Today, consumers are faced with more choice than ever when it comes to their financial affairs. From contemporary offerings like Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) and embedded finance platforms, to more traditional products like credit and debit cards, institutions and retailers alike are being called upon to deliver more seamless, quick and flexible solutions to their customers.
Crucially, businesses launching new financial products often require the complex underlying infrastructure of a bank to bring their offerings to market -- this is, of course, with the obvious exception of certain BNPL products like Klarna, which can operate without full regulation. Likewise, incumbent banks themselves, who already have the full regulatory permissions required to operate, may need to adopt core banking platforms to modernize their legacy systems in order to develop truly competitive offerings to meet the needs of their customers. This is where Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service come in to disrupt the fintech landscape.
Fintech sector will struggle with global talent shortage
The first quarter of this year has seen a massive 182 percent growth in tech roles within fintech, three times the pace of general market.
Figures from recruitment firm Robert Walters show that one in three new hires within fintech companies around the globe are software engineers and developers. Also the top eight fintech 'mega-hubs' account for over 90 percent of all new fintech jobs advertised around the globe.
Hackers spoof fintech apps as tax season approaches
The annual tax season is inevitably the cue for a spate of attacks impersonating official sites or popular accounting software.
In a new twist for this year researchers at email security firm Avanan have uncovered attacks spoofing fintech apps such as Stash and Public to steal credentials and give users a false sense of security that they've compiled the right tax documents.
High risk vulnerabilities in fintech soar over the past year
Financial services companies on the Bugcrowd platform experienced a 185 percent increase in the last 12 months for Priority One (P1) submissions, which relate to the most critical vulnerabilities.
According to activity recorded on the Bugcrowd Security Knowledge Platform, high-level trends include an increase in ransomware and the reimagining of supply chains, leading to more complex attack surfaces during the pandemic.
Open banking, real-time payments and more AI -- fintech predictions for 2022
It's that time of year again, when tech experts like to swirl their tea leaves, polish up their crystal balls and try to predict what lies ahead for the coming year.
To get our annual series of predictions round-ups underway we're taking a look at the world of banking and fintech.
The changing face of fraud and how artificial intelligence is helping to counter it [Q&A]
Financial crime is on the increase and attackers must be stopped in their tracks. Financial service organizations new and old need to ensure they have the right technology in place to predict, detect and deter fraud, whilst ensuring minimal disruption to the customer journey.
We spoke to Martin Rehak, CEO of Resistant AI to find out how sophisticated artificial intelligence can detect known criminal practices and more importantly, predict the unknown emerging patterns of financial crime.
How FinTech and digital currency unfolds global technology disruption
The term FinTech has been coined quite recently. However, this does not change the fact that Finance and technology have always been intertwined. Way back in 1866 the first transatlantic cable was laid, which then became the backbone for the globalization of finance. Next in 1918, the first electronic transfer of money was conducted using Morse code technology. In the 1950s, credit cards, another digital payment medium, was launched by American Express and Diners Club. This event can officially be called FinTech 1.0.
The actual beginning of modern FinTech effectively dates back to 1967 when the first ATM machine was used by Barclays in 1967 and the period was called FinTech 2.0. Owing to the development of technologies in communication and transaction, the world saw its first digital stock market, which marked the beginning of online financial markets. The advances didn’t stop there.
Artificial Intelligence: A smart investment for financial services firms
Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly gaining momentum as a vital business resource as organizations discover new use cases in their efforts to improve processes, increase efficiency and automate costly, manual tasks. Industries such as financial services are ideal for AI-driven applications and a related technology, machine learning (ML), because they can bolster customer service and leverage data to increase competitiveness.
AI includes software that’s designed to work in ways similar to the human brain, while machine learning encompasses programs that alter themselves based on data that’s fed into the programs in order to train them.
Transform business operations with cloud-based expense reporting
Expense reporting can be a headache for both employees and businesses.
For employees, hanging onto receipts and filling out detailed paperwork is tedious and gets in the way of more productive tasks. It can be easy to lose track of important information needed to file reports correctly, especially for frequent travelers. Traditional reporting procedures put the onus on the employee to keep tabs on one more thing -- on top of doing their jobs.
Why the financial sector is especially vulnerable to cyberattacks [Q&A]
There's a famous quote attributed to career criminal William Francis Sutton Jr., when asked why he robbed banks he is said to have replied, "Because that's where the money is."
For today's cybercriminals the motivation to make money is much the same, so the banking and financial services sector is a prime target. We spoke to Paul Prudhomme, cyber threat intelligence advisor at IntSights to find out more about the threats the industry faces and how they can be addressed.
Cryptocurrency becomes mainstream and new digital standards arrive -- fintech predictions for 2021
In recent years we've seen some significant shifts in the financial sector, with newer businesses using technology to challenge more established players.
Much of this has centered around the use of blockchain, although cryptocurrency still hasn't entered the mainstream. What do experts think we'll see in the fintech space next year?
Overcoming COVID-19: What finance leaders at recently-funded tech startups have learned so far
There’s no doubt that 2020 has been a testing year for everyone. According to data from PwC, 53 percent of CFOs expect a decrease in revenue and/or profits of up to 25 percent as a direct result of COVID-19. For many tech startups, that’s the difference between staying alive and closing for good.
With such uncertainty in the air, leadership teams have had to act fast and rethink their entire strategy.
Google Plex reinvents banking for regular folks
Banking is great for the bankers, but not so much for their customers. For many people, dealing with a bank can be a nightmare -- full of overdraft fees, poor service, and terrible location hours. Quite frankly, even the customers with huge balances aren't making out too good these days, as interest rates are almost non-existent.
And so, Google is looking to reinvent banking with a focus on regular folks -- the ones that aren't wealthy. Called "Plex," it is a special mobile-focused bank account coming in 2021 that does away with the predatory fees that seem to target middle- and lower-class people. These fees are why many people in America don't even have a bank account -- a sad reality. No, Google isn't becoming a bank with Plex -- it is instead partnering with several financial institutions to offer these accounts.
Hybrid cloud application delivery in financial services
The financial services sector is experiencing significant commercial disruption coupled with rapid innovation as established institutions strive to become more agile and meet evolving customer demand. As a result, financial services organizations are undergoing rapid digital transformation to meet changing customer needs and preferences, and to compete with a new generation of digital-native competitors. Hybrid cloud environments play a key role in this strategy, allowing greater speed, flexibility, and visibility over application delivery than on-premises data centers while also reducing costs.
But the move to hybrid cloud introduces new challenges as well. So, as financial services organizations plot their strategy for transformation, firms must make critical technical decisions about the clouds and form factors best suited to host their hybrid environment. They also need to consider how they will secure web applications against evolving threats such as ransomware, data theft, and DDoS attacks through measures such as DDoS protection and using a Zero Trust model. At the same time, they must also maintain regulatory compliance, governance, and auditability across complex, fast-evolving infrastructures.
Fintech startup Revolut brings cryptocurrency trading to US customers
British fintech firm Revolut has partnered with New York-based Paxos to bring Bitcoin and Ethereum trading to customers in the US.
Having only launched in the United States in March this year, Revolut is gradually bringing the services it already offers in Europe to its American user base. Thanks to the new partnership, residents of 49 states can now indulge in some crypto trading.
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