Accenture research study: “The Future of Fintech and Banking: Digitally disrupted or reimagined?”

On 25 March 2015 Accenture released a research study titled “The Future of Fintech and Banking: Digitally disrupted or reimagined?”

The study confirms that global investment in financial-technology (fintech) ventures tripled from $4.05 billion in 2013 to $12.2 billion in 2014, with Europe being the fastest growing region in the world. The report also confirms that in 2014, fintech investment increased at more than three times the rate of overall venture capital investment. Further confirmed was that the US still captures the lion’s share of fintech investment, Europe experienced the highest growth rate, with an increase of 215% to $1.48 billion in 2014.

The UK and Ireland (UKI) accounted for more than two-fifths (42%) of the European total, as investment in the region rose from $264 million in 2013 to $623 million in 2014. In the rest of Europe, the regions that experienced the most significant levels of investment in 2014 were the Nordic countries ($345 million), the Netherlands ($306 million) and Germany ($82 million).

The massive investment in fintech shows that the digital revolution is well advanced in financial services, and it is both a threat and an opportunity for banks. The report also suggests that many established banks are not well equipped to deal with the digital revolution.

The full report can be downloaded here.

UK Government's Chief Scientific Officer issues report : FinTech Futures - the UK as a World Leader in Financial Technologies

In March 2015, the UK government’s chief scientific officer issued a report “FinTech Futures -The UK as a World Leader in Financial Technologies”.

The report has set out 10 recommendations designed to help achieve UK Chancellor George Osborne's stated aim of turning Britain into the world's fintech capital. During Summer 2014, Mr Osborne vowed to use the government's powers to help make the UK a hub for financial technology innovation and commissioned a report to investigate the enablers and barriers that will shape the UK fintech sector over the next 10 years. The report recommends the creation of a 'fintech advisory group' with representation from government, regulators, trade associations, academia and business. This body would coordinate strategy and provide a neutral forum for dialogue.

The UK government should also create a programme of 'grand challenges' for the fintech industry to tackle, in areas such as machine learning, digital currencies, big data, and mobile payments. Research councils and Innovate UK should be used to support research into fintech areas, helping to ensure academics have access to world-class data sets. Meanwhile fintech modules should be included in relevant degree courses. Another recommendation is the creation of regional hubs to help spread fintech's benefits beyond London. In the March 2015 budget, Mr Osborne took the first step towards this, though the promise to fund an incubator in Leeds. The report also calls for a system to be developed and overseen by financial regulators, that allows new ideas to be piloted, and new technologies to be tested in virtual and real situations. In the budget, Mr Osborne said that the FCA's ‘Project Innovate’ will work with HMT and the Prudential Regulation Authority to investigate the feasibility of developing a regulatory ‘sandbox’ for financial services innovators. Mr Osborne also tasked the FCA and PRA with responding to another of the report's recommendations: the creation of a state-of-the art regulatory reporting and analytics infrastructure, dubbed ‘RegTech’.

The Full report can be downloaded here.