London tops fintech index for second straight year
For the second year in a row, London has topped the European Digital City Index (EDCi), a composite index designed by innovation foundation Nesta and the European Digital Forum, according to City AM. The EDCi 2016, published on Friday, ranks European cities by how well they support digital entrepreneurship, and how attractive they are to fintech founders and companies. It is based on 10 core metrics, including skills, access to capital, business environment, digital infrastructure, mentoring, market, and entrepreneurial culture. Here are the results of this year’s index: London still leads. The British capital ranked first out of 60 featured cities both for startups and for “scale-ups,” or young companies […]
Capgemini launches global fintech initiative
Consulting and technology giant Capgemini has launched a global initiative that will fast-track fintech engagements with its financial services clients around the world. Capgemini’s fintech initiative will bring together its domain and integration expertise to scan, select, and evolve innovation for its clients, through an intense curation and collaboration process. The project extends beyond the traditional incubator concept to encompass connection, curation, incubation and investment stages, Capgemini said. It also aims to address one of the biggest challenges in integrating external innovation by bridging gaps in adoption, including tech integration, data management, process changes, and compliance and regulatory requirements. “Be it generating exceptional customer experience or improving operational efficiencies, fintech […]
Here’s why Trump’s win boosted Bitcoin
As Trump’s electoral victory became clear, global markets plunged into volatility. Dow Jones stock futures dropped by 3.8% in premarket trading, S&P futures by 3% overnight, and Nasdaq futures by almost 5%. All major European indices dropped by 2%, on average. The price of bitcoin, however, surged around 4% to reach highs of $738.33 overnight. The cryptocurrency saw similar gains in June after the Brexit vote, suggesting that investors are increasingly turning to bitcoin in times of political and economic uncertainty. There are a number of reasons why bitcoin proves attractive in these circumstances: It’s an alternative asset. Alternative assets are non-traditional assets — other examples include precious metals and […]
Banks team up with their FinTech competitors
These are challenging times for the incumbent heavyweights of the financial services sector. Beset by regulatory, governance, technological, capital, and investment issues, they are increasingly facing competition for business from a whole host of new players, primarily from ‘FinTechs’. Growth of marketplace lending In the case of online lenders, this trend began in the UK in the mid-2000s when Zopa, the world’s first digital and now Europe’s largest peer-to-peer (now called marketplace) provider, launched, quickly followed by the likes of Prosper, Lending Club, and OnDeck in the US. Eleven years on, Zopa has lent around 1.8 billion pounds to more than 150,000 borrowers funded by 63,000 investors of whom 53,000 […]
XERO CEO: London’s fintech scene is ‘world class’ and will stay that way post-Brexit
The CEO of £1.4 billion accountancy software giant Xero says London is a world leader in fintech — financial technology — and will remain that way post-Brexit. Rod Drury, founder and CEO of Xero, told Business Insider during a recent interview in London: “We love the fintech innovation happening in London, it’s absolutely world-class. When you see the apps that are being built here, they will go global. We’re really impressed by the quality of the finch thinking that goes on here.” London has become a European hub for financial technology — fintech — companies since the 2008 financial crisis. London boasts both a global finance hub in the City […]
Fintech could be bigger than ATMs, PayPal, and Bitcoin combined
We’ve entered the most profound era of change for financial services companies since the 1970s brought us index mutual funds, discount brokers and ATMs. No firm is immune from the coming disruption and every company must have a strategy to harness the powerful advantages of the new financial technology (“fintech”) revolution. The battle already underway will create surprising winners and stunned losers among some of the most powerful names in the financial world: The most contentious conflicts (and partnerships) will be between startups that are completely reengineering decades-old practices, traditional power players who are furiously trying to adapt with their own innovations, and total disruption of established technology & processes: […]
Nominations for the Fintech100 list of top fintech companies is now open
Nominations have opened for the highly coveted inclusion on the list of the world’s top fintech innovators – known as the ‘Fintech100’. Fintech companies from around the world are invited to apply, at www.fintechinnovators.com, the Fintech100 incorporates both the leading 50 established fintechs, and the most intriguing 50 ‘emerging stars’. Through the Fintech Innovators website (www.fintechinnovators.com), H2 Ventures, in collaboration with KPMG Fintech, produces the Fintech100 Report to highlight the world’s most successful, exciting and high impact new companies reshaping the financial services industry using new technologies. The Fintech100 list will be curated by a judging panel with members based in financial centres across the world. The 2016 Fintech100 […]
Fintech platform revenues set for massive rise: Juniper
Fintech platform revenues for unsecured consumer loans issued using machine learning technology are set to jump by a whopping 960% globally over the next six years, according to new research from Juniper. According to the latest report on the worldwide Fintech market from Juniper Research, revenues will rise to US$17 billion by 2021, with spending advancing rapidly due to the highly data-driven nature of the market, “meaning that AI integration is likely to spell substantial benefits”. Juniper says that until recently, machine learning was too expensive and computationally time-intensive to break into the mainstream, while access to extensive data sets for algorithm training were limited. Research author Steffen Sorrell says […]
