Finextra Research: Latest fintech news, analysis, interviews, features and opinion by industry experts

Future of Report

The Future of Digital Banking in Europe 2024

A Money20/20 Special Edition. In 2023, fintech investment in the EMEA region dropped to $24.5 billion, down from $49.6 billion in 2022 – a seven year low. Macroeconomic and global political conditions are creating challenges for growth, with upcoming general elections around the world adding to the uncertainties in financial ecosystems. Despite these challenges, the outlook for European digital banking remains positive. The region continues to lead in innovation within the financial sector. This Finextra report, a Special Edition for Money20/20 Europe, features interviews with key players in the European financial services and fintech industries. It includes insights from Vodeno, EY, J.P. Morgan, Swift, Tink, and TrueLayer, and explores the following topics that will be addressed in Amsterdam: Hyper-personalisation: Moving towards super apps Embedded payments driving the Banking-as-a-Service revolution Variable recurring payments: The next step in European open banking Is Europe ready for MiCA? From Web1 to Web3, or Markets1 to Markets3 How European fintech is facing macro challenges

04 June 2024 914 downloads

Event Report

Sustainable Finance Live - Sustainable Cities: Enabling positive change through innovation and collaboration

Sustainable Finance Live Conference and Hackathon - Visual Record On 10 October, Finextra Research and ResponsibleRisk held the annual Sustainable Finance Live Hybrid Conference and Hackathon, in partnership with NavaOne, at Events@ no6 in London. This year's conference focused on how to finance sustainable cities, what we can do to identify solutions and work towards resolutions through panel sessions, workshops, and the hackathon. Download our visual event record to discover the key themes from the day's panels, keynotes and hackathon. We cover: The bank's role in financing sustainable cities The role of Al in decarbonising the built environment Private sector risk appetite and the race toward net zero Connecting capital with the right sustainability solutions Visions and results from the Hackathon And much more. Download the Sustainable Finance Live visual record to learn more. Click here to watch the recordings of the SustainableFinance.Live 2023 plenary sessions in London. Click here to watch the related SustainableFinance.Live on-demand webinar - Placing cities at the centre of the climate change discussion.

05 December 2023 101 downloads

Future of Report

The Future of Fintech in Africa 2023

Across fintech - digital banking, digital payments, personal finance, lending, and investment - data is central to the function of all these technologies and the most important source for the analysis of financial products and services, bridging the gap between data security and customer satisfaction. Many organisations, countries and regions have forged ahead in leveraging data, cloud, blockchain and AI to their advantage – one such continent is Africa. Two years after the global financial crisis, Kenyan payments, money transfer and micro-financing service M-Pesa became the most successful mobile phone based financial service in the developing world. This was also just three years after its launch by network operators Vodafone and Safaricom. Further to this, transaction flows sent by banks have grown by an average of 10% year-on-year during this 10-year period. Alongside this, mobile money payments have exploded, with the monthly value of transactions increasing 25 times over between 2010 and 2018. The digital payments market has matured faster in Africa than it has in Europe: the number of electronic payments in France grew from 33 million in 2009 to 61.5 million in 2018, but in Nigeria, the number of electronic payment transactions grew from 66 million in 2008 to over two billion in 2018, according to Statista. Further to this, the number of digital payments users is slated to amount to a staggering 611 million users by 2027. However, Africa’s largest market will be digital investment with a total transaction value of $994 million in 2023 and the digital assets market is expected to show a revenue growth of 36% in 2024. It is evident that Africa is on the rise and leveraging technologies such as AI, blockchain, cloud, and data will only allow the continent’s fintech firms to excel across the digital banking, digital payments, personal finance, lending, and investment sectors. This Finextra report, produced in association with Kora, compiles expert insights from a range of firms, including: Binance, Cloud Africa, Data Scientists Network, JUMO, Mojaloop Foundation, TymeBank, and Yoco, and provides predictions for the future of fintech in Africa.

20 July 2023 571 downloads

Report

Rebundling: The Next Stage of the Fintech Evolution

The next stage of the fintech evolution is rebundling. At the core of the industry, the catalyst for fintech evolution has continued to be disruption and innovation, but not one banking or financial services issue can simply be resolved with only disruption or innovation. After the global financial crisis of 2008, it would have been unusual to have more than one or two banking relationships. However, the emergence of an open playing field, and with the application of the Second Payment Services Directive – more commonly known as PSD2 – across Europe, non-financial businesses were able to leverage open banking and open finance initiatives to offer financial services directly to their customers. This, in turn, widened the competition and resulted in the birth of fintech businesses that each focused on attacking one part of the banking value chain – be it payments, lending, FX, or another type of offering. Slow, complex, and expensive processes were no longer the status quo; and alternative players started to disintermediate the incumbents. These new entrants increasingly became popular because of their intention to improve customer experience and provide better products and services than the banks could – and in many cases, disruptors were both better and cheaper than the banks. Additionally, new fintech channels and platforms have become viable competitors to traditional players, tempting consumers away from the institutions they trust in favour of better user experiences. Now it is not unusual for people to have up to 15 financial apps downloaded on to their mobile phones. This Finextra impact study, produced in association with Banking Circle Group, explores the evolution of fintechs and Big Techs from unbundling towards rebundling of financial products and services to the benefit of customers, as well as providing examples for the modernisation of banks and financial institutions.

22 July 2022 788 downloads

Report

The Future of Wealth Management 2022

A sector at the beginning of its digital renaissance. Increased digitisation of goods and services throughout the 2010s gathered pace long before Covid-19 turned the global outlook on its head. The pandemic served only to reaffirm this shift to digital as a matter of urgency. The wealth management sector was not spared the upheaval; however, it appears to be emerging from the crisis with an invigorated sense of progress. The disruptive forces of digitisation and Covid-19 are now joined by a groundswell of consumer expectation. This is clearly witnessed in the soaring uptake of retail investment tools and applications, greater access to financial instruments and widespread revolt against the traditional inaccessibility of financial services. This report, the Future of Wealth Management 2021 with interviews from Accenture, Coutts, Hargreaves Lansdown, Nutmeg, Oxford Risk, Tilney Smith & Williamson, and UBS Global Wealth Management will explore the forces currently shaping the industry. It will examine not only what these forces are, but how and why they form the structural foundation for a sector which is at the very beginning of its digital renaissance.

10 November 2021 1111 downloads

Report

Competitive Advantage through Cloud Connectivity

Why NaaS is the smartest path to realising Financial Services Innovation in the Cloud. Many financial services firms are still making the shift from their legacy environments to more agile ways of consuming and running IT. Networking is one of the most critical aspects of this transition. It’s the backbone that connects all parts of an organisation and its data, as well as its wider ecosystem of partners, providers, and customers. The speed, reliability, and flexibility of the network directly impacts financial players’ pace of innovation, as well as their ability to provide highly available, customer-centric services. The challenges and limitations of traditional networking are clear in our virtualised, cloud-enabled, data-driven world. It’s slow to provision, expensive to maintain, lacks flexibility and integration, and can’t scale effectively to handle big data sets and analytics workloads. The need to modernise and simplify networks is an imperative for financial services organisations as their infrastructures become more complex and they develop their multi-cloud and hybrid-cloud strategies to support business transformation. Network-as-a-Service, or NaaS, enables financial services organisations to maximise the potential of the cloud as part of their digital transformation. It provides the future-proofed networking foundation that allows innovation and competitive differentiation. Download this Finextra impact study, in association with Megaport, to learn more.

06 September 2021 173 downloads

Report

Driving successful Cloud Transformation

Capital market firms face the challenge to evolve at pace with technology, so that they're able to innovate and adapt to the customer’s needs quickly. Cloud is seen as a key enabler to their digital future, however cloud adoption isn’t just about IT infrastructure. How can executives develop a holistic approach towards cloud modernisation to ensure their investments pay off? As ‘digital’ engulfs business strategies, large-scale financial services players need to develop smarter ways to adapt and accelerate technological change. They are also under constant pressure from fintechs operating on agile systems, rolling out products and services at speed. The pace of innovation at large firms often suffers due to the scale of operations, monolithic tech infrastructure, ‘people alignment’ and old ways of working. Challenges brought about by COVID require even greater levels of resilience and agility to navigate. More firms than ever are using cloud-led modernisation as a catalyst for holistic enterprise transformation, and crucially, this should lead to adaptable business models that can sustain growth and weather future uncertainties in an ever-changing milieu. To maximise the value from investment, operating models need to align closely business and tech strategies. A democratised approach needs to be implemented enterprisewide and with that, a portfolio management approach to balance the long-term evolution of the underlying platform whilst pursuing growth with new products and features. Technology modernisation is also an enabler for lean product management practices such as low-cost rapid experimentation for exploring and exploiting innovative opportunities. Organisational, as well as technological change is needed to ensure teams can tap into the acceleration and agility that cloud-based architecture promises. Organisations need a mind shift- moving from a top-down decision culture to an empowered agile workforce that can continuously deliver on strategic business outcomes. This research paper from Finextra, in association with Thoughtworks, is based on interviews with senior leaders on their plans and challenges around digital programmes and cloud modernisation.

15 July 2021 338 downloads

Report

Sustainable Finance Live - Valuing Nature: Better Assessing Financial Risk

A Visual Record from the Sustainable Finance Live workshops 11 - 12 May 2021. On 11 and 12 May 2021, Finextra and ResponsibleRisk brought together sustainable finance experts to discuss how financial services firms and technology companies can achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Debunking the myth that revenue cannot be generated through trustworthy implementation of ESG measures, this programme of interactive co-creation workshops targeted a number of sub-sectors within financial services, and spoke to the specific challenges and opportunities through a lean back, lean in and learn model. The event explored how providing investors with dynamic data can help define the impact on both natural capital assets and dependencies on ecosystem services. This will be crucial for the future of our planet. In his recent HM Treasury-commissioned review, ‘The Economics of Biodiversity’, Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta stated that when considering this topic, it becomes a study in portfolio management, and we must approach it as asset managers. Today, nature is under-priced and under-valued. The best that each of us can achieve with our current portfolios will result in a collective failure. However, if biodiversity is viewed as a portfolio of natural assets, there will be increased resilience against the impact of shock. Download a Visual Record of the event below to find out more.

02 June 2021 80 downloads

Report

Sustainable Finance Live - Reimagining Risk Modelling ESG Solutions

A Visual Record from the Sustainable Finance Live workshops 8-9 December 2020. Debunking the myth that revenue cannot be generated through trustworthy implementation of ESG measures, this co-creation event focused on real-time forward-looking measurement of climate change and nature loss to address transitional and physical risk, following a lean back, lean in and learn by doing model. The workshop detailed how alternative data from sources such as satellites and sensors can augment traditional risk systems and provide insights for the future of sustainable financing. Diving deep into the practical challenges of risk management, the sessions considered using alternative data to inform credit decisions, with speakers providing advice on how to embrace sustainable finance. The interactive forum welcomed a set of cross-functional skills from individuals spanning the technology, business and finance sectors. Initially taking a generalised approach to understand reporting across ESG finance sectors, it became apparent that specific use cases were needed. Richard Peers, founder of ResponsibleRisk and contributing editor for Finextra Research, outlined the key questions for the event: What are the issues and opportunities for risk management working with alternative data to inform credit decisions? How can these decisions be quantified against physical and transition risk? With a top-down approach, a clear focus of the sustainability components and trying to infer the process of assessing the following, the workshop focused on: Using alternative data to inform physical and transition risk How satellite and sensor data can provide insights for investment and governance professionals Plotting the steps to resolution of existing problems and mainstream use of data Identifying how to prevent lack of proper pricing of ESG risk Download the full report below to find out more.

16 April 2021 71 downloads

Report

Industry Spotlight - Real Time Intraday Liquidity Management

This piece from Finextra, in association with Montran, shines a light on an increasingly dynamic industry focus- the importance of intraday liquidity management- and the benefits to banks who tackle this head on. Finextra interviewed Joost Bergen, Cash Dynamics, liquidity management specialist and industry speaker about a real time and technology-first approach to the challenge. Read the associated white paper here - Liquidity and Beyond: Building a future through certainty

29 March 2021 178 downloads

Report

The Future of Cloud 2021

Evolving the Financial Services Industry. As consumers have come to expect the same experience of their financial services providers that they have elsewhere in their lives, traditional financial institutions (FIs) are increasingly looking for ways to improve customer service and deepen engagement. For many, optimising the digital experience for customers is a priority. From leveraging omni-channel communication strategies to creating more personalised experiences, the goal is to deliver the right message, at the right time, in the right channel. Fintech firms have been faster to innovate. Many, in fact, were created to address consumer dissatisfaction with traditional financial services providers. However, many players across the banking, payments and capital markets industries such as Barclays, Broadridge, Capgemini, Calypso, Collibra, DBS, FICO, Fraud.net, Global Payments, HSBC, IHS Markit, Kx, Mambu, Nasdaq, Numerix, OakNorth, Singapore Exchange, Solarisbank, Standard Chartered and Trading Technologies are increasingly turning to the cloud as a way to accelerate their digital transformation for customers. Shifting away from legacy infrastructure reduces time and resource constraints and financial institutions can innovate and respond to customer needs with the cloud. Banks, payments services providers, and capital markets firms must take advantage of the cloud’s greater elasticity, flexibility and cost-effectiveness. Download your copy of the report below to learn more. Part of the Finextra Cloud Series, in association with Amazon Web Services (AWS).

26 March 2021 850 downloads

Report

Automation, Resiliency and Agility: Key Drivers of Cloud Adoption and Strategy

A Finextra Research Impact Study in Association with Calypso Technology and Amazon Web Services (AWS). Cloud adoption for financial services firms has been on the rise over the past few years - a trend that has been further bolstered by the wave of digitisation brought on by the global pandemic. A survey of financial services firms’ cloud attitudes conducted by bobsguide in 2020 revealed that nearly 83% of participants were already working on the cloud, with 50% expanding their use and the rest of the respondents having already completed their cloud migration. Financial institutions in the global capital markets space are facing unprecedented regulatory scrutiny, IT rationalisation, and cost pressures while still having to deliver value to their clients, which has shifted the spotlight on cloud from innovative or experimental initiatives to mission-critical workloads that can be made leaner and less expensive to maintain. While cloud has become a common mode of delivery for innovative capital markets firms, recent financial pressure, global macro-economic uncertainty and the need to respond to regulatory change has led to cloud adoption and migration being integrated and considered a crucial part of a financial institution’s business strategy in optimising mission-critical workloads with cloud technology. In this impact study, we discuss the key drivers of cloud adoption, as well as strategies that ensure successful outcomes for customers who want to make the move to cloud. Download your copy of the Impact Study below to learn more.

11 December 2020 390 downloads

Report

The Tipping Point of Cloud and Risk Management in Capital Markets

A Finextra Research Impact Study in Association with Numerix and Amazon Web Services (AWS). Capital markets firms are acknowledging that the cloud is a catalyst for establishing competitive advantage and the financial services sector has been taking steps to prioritise digital transformation. To meet customer requirements and remain competitive, financial services organisations must increase their agility, reduce time to market for new products and services, and address the spiralling total cost of ownership (TCO) of their IT infrastructures. Today, it is evident that all roads lead to the cloud. Download your copy of the Impact Study below to learn more.

05 October 2020 435 downloads

Report

Sustainable Finance Live - Investment and Asset Management ESG Solutions

A Visual Record from the Sustainable Finance Live workshops. In June 2020, Finextra Research welcomed industry experts to Sustainable Finance Live, the first virtual, interactive workshop to discuss how financial services firms and technology companies can achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. Debunking the myth that revenue cannot be generated through trustworthy implementation of ESG measures, this co-creation event targeted the subsector of investment and asset management and explored specific challenges and opportunities, following a lean back, lean in and learn model. The workshop defined what investors require in order to track and securitise with confidence and what asset managers need to build portfolios that institutional investors will select. Diving deep into the practical challenges of investment and asset management, the sessions considered data access and reporting, with speakers providing advice on how to embrace sustainable finance. With a top down approach, a clear focus of the sustainability components and trying to infer the process of assessing the following, the workshop focused on: The investment gap in new technologies and models Information acquisition through third party suppliers to help the risk function Incentivisation schemes to promote better sustainability norms The role of technology in validating ESG activities Download the full report below to find out more.

27 July 2020 271 downloads

Report

AI in Financial Services: Next Steps To Realising The Potential

AI has generated a lot of excitement in the past few years. While it is a disruptive technology, its potential to add value in Financial Services firms is enormous. It already exists in our lives, and we know that it has much further to go. Every day we hear more about driverless cars, chatbots, robots, robo advisors and so much more. Where will AI go, how will it change our world are questions worth pondering. Firms across the globe are becoming aware of the power of these technologies. They have started to explore how AI could improve the customer experience, enter new markets and gain revenue more quickly, reduce operational and business expenses and enhance compliance efforts. Banks always want to know their customers better and improve their relationships. AI will clearly help here. In late 2017 Finextra and Opentext conducted a survey exploring how firms are approaching AI in financial services, what areas they consider the benefits and what they view as barriers to success. Download the full report now to view the findings, we hope you find the results as compelling as we do.

19 April 2018 966 downloads