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FinTech Weekly Magazine

  • A Cautionary Tale for Tokens

    As the digital asset community tries to project how the world’s governments and agencies will ultimately regulate the cascade of coins and tokens now being blockchained into existence, we could use a good anecdote. Do we have a relatively recent story that features large quantities of regulatory uncertainty, customer frenzy and start-up obsession? One that might illuminate basic truths that help token investors and issuers navigate the unusual regulatory landscape they find themselves trying to cross? In fact we do. The story of daily fantasy sports companies during the second half of 2015 offers the digital asset community several valuable insights.

  • Mobile Payment: NFC, QR Codes, In-app and beyond…

    ‘Mobile payments’ is a broad term. As the ecosystem has developed, various new technologies have emerged to change the way we act and transact in-store.

  • PSP ecosystem explained and global mapping of key players

    As the PSP segment in the payments value chain is maturing, retail prices for online payments are steadily dropping, while the level of service offered to merchants is only increasing. Consequently, players aim to gain scale and increase capabilities through strategic acquisitions. This report describes the global PSP space today and defines the capabilities offered by the different participants in the ecosystem.

  • Navigating Cryptocurrency Regulation: Common Sense in an Uncommon Industry

    The recent, exponential growth of bitcoin, Ether, and other cryptocurrencies has brought cryptocurrencies firmly into the public eye. Some have created crypto-products or tokens to raise funds in a veritable cash grab with little foresight, planning, or disclosure. Others – by the tens and hundreds of thousands – are signing up to purchase crypto-assets. Often these purchasers have no understanding of the underlying technology or the risks involved, proving that, as Mark Twain opined, “common sense is very uncommon.”

  • Cryptocurrencies – Does the Next Big Thing have Staying Power?

    Cryptocurrencies – not just bitcoin, but any of the hundreds of different currencies that have been created using blockchain technology – have caught the imagination of the public. There are, seemingly, daily articles that predict either the demise of all traditional currencies in favor of cryptocurrencies, and just as many articles predicting the demise of cryptocurrencies.

  • Fintech perspective: the best is yet to come

    In the past 18 months a great many column inches have been given over to distributed ledger technology, more commonly known as blockchain and its power to disrupt industries, particularly in the financial sector.

  • Managing Identities Online: Blockchain and AI are the Key

    Blockchain and identity management are not only a natural fit, but will also be an increasingly important part for online businesses in the future. AI and Blockchain will play crucial roles in customer onboarding and provide better conversion for businesses and more security for all parties involved.

  • How Online Identification Will Change Businesses – Rupert Spiegelberg and Armin Bauer, IDnow

    FinTech Weekly talked to online identification provider IDnow about why identity management will be one of the most interesting areas to watch in 2018. Further, we discussed their highly interesting business, how opening bank accounts online can be safer than in a bank, and how even customers of 102 years old can use online identification.

  • Building the fintech hub – Interview with N26's Head of International Markets, Alexander Weber

    FinTech Weekly interviewed Alexander Weber, Head of International Markets at mobile bank N26. We briefly talked about their market expansion to the UK and US, building the fintech hub through partnerships with incumbents and fintechs and why N26 does not fear the tech giants in banking.

  • Blockchain Trends to Keep on Your Radar for 2018

    Blockchain is for sure a disruptive technology, and there are some trends you should consider for the next year.

  • Bridging Cryptocurrency with the Travel Industry

    “The 90s had dotcom mania. Here comes crypto mania!”
    While Bitcoin is conquering new highs in the 20,000 range, and global public attention is glued to the charts of altcoins of all types, opinions have split: from baby boomer’s claiming cryptocurrency a gigantic bubble, to millennials hoping to hedge against political and economic fluctuations.

  • Blockchain could disrupt credit agencies all over the world

    Blockchain is driving a paradigm shift in how we deal with data, rewriting the rulebook around approaches to data management, transparency and ownership. While digital finance is cutting the cost of serving the underbanked to drive financial inclusion, blockchain could offer a way of widening access to even greater numbers of consumers excluded from mainstream financial services.

  • The blossoming relationship between PE investors and FinTech start-ups

    Private Equity (PE) houses completed a record number of investments in FinTech portfolio companies in 2015 according to Pitchbook, marking a 79% increase on the 53 FinTech deals completed by PE firms three years earlier. Since 2015, PE firms have continued to invest in FinTech with the likes of BlackFin Capital Partners and Finstar Financial Group setting the benchmark by investing considerable amounts in the FinTech start-up market. Despite the recent decline in PE investment generally and the economic uncertainty following the Brexit vote, the FinTech start-up industry may be poised to continue its lucrative rise.

  • ICOs: Regulatory Landscape and Good Practices

    An increased scrutiny of initial coin offerings (ICOs) shows that a professionalization of the ICO process is urgently needed.

  • 2018 Lending Predictions – A New Game Awaits

    Digital fluency and a thirst for convenience are making the UK’s borrowers more capricious and cost-sensitive than ever. Interest rate rises, and new regulations will add fuel to this fire next year, and lenders that can’t keep up will get burned in 2018.

  • CTO Insights: PIN-on-Mobile is coming

    Imagine taking a regular smartphone and turning it into a payment acceptance device with a simple app download. That’s the utopian dream many companies are chasing today and it could bring huge benefits to the payments ecosystem, merchants and consumers as card and mobile payments continue to grow.

  • Cryptocurrencies and ICOs – A Rough Guide to Regulation

    Over the past few years there has been a growing proliferation of cryptocurrencies. More recently, companies which may have limited access to fundraising through traditional methods are turning to cryptocurrencies, and initial coin offering (“ICO”), as a means to raise funds.

  • Will the overnight millionaire become an overnight pauper?

    Someone who invested just USD 1,000 in bitcoin in 2010 will now have a net worth of USD 70 million. With predictions that bitcoin’s value will jump up to USD 50,000, more and more “investors” are jumping on the cryptocurrency bandwagon in a bid to benefit from the “mysterious” cryptocurrency’s phenomenal climb in value.

  • Managing the risk and reward of PSD2

    Banks and financial services institutions are preparing for a shake-up, with the new payments services directive (known as PSD2) coming into force in a matter of months. The rules are set to transform the payments and banking industries, bringing exciting new opportunities for fintech, along with strict new requirements and responsibilities. Here, we outline the key changes to be aware of.

  • How to Get Press for Your ICO

    Enhance the visibility of your ICO when you learn what it takes to get the press needed to take your brand’s public profile to the next level in this industry.

  • What about the ethics of FinTech?

    FinTech is rapidly becoming the backbone of consumers’ buying and investing habits, increasingly entrenching different technologies into everyday use. FinTech has transformed the way banks offer financial services to customers, and every day, financial institutions are finding innovative ways to share banking use cases and financial functions with their beneficiaries.

  • How Robo-advice for Credit and Debt Will Disrupt the Industry

    Expensive asset managers today are struggling to deal with the twin challenges to their traditional business model: low-cost, passively-managed index funds, and the online robo-advisors that help retail investors optimize the allocation of their assets between those funds. The finance industry is still unprepared for the next big disruption — widespread use of robo-advisors for liabilities: online tools that will deliver customized credit solutions to consumers in real time.

  • Startups @ WebSummit – Video Interviews (3-5min)

    We stopped by at some of the startups and established fintechs at this year's WebSummit in Lisbon to ask them what their respective products can achieve – in just three minutes. Here's who they are, what they do and how they see the industry.

  • Turf Wars - Consumer attitudes towards established and alternative lenders

    They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Challenger banks are doing what their name suggests, and research indicates they are gaining ground. For established lenders, replicating the characteristics of their smaller, more agile competitors, will help them defend their position. Outsourcing is the key, argues Sarah Jackson, Director, Equiniti Credit Services.

  • When Fintech Meets Finance

    Fintech – the potent intersection of the finance and technology industries – has transformed the business landscape forever. After all, technology had already irrevocably transformed our lives, from the way we shop to the way we socialise. It was time that technology revolutionised the way businesses accessed funds.