Since the UK’s vote to leave the European Union last June there has been much talk about the process of Brexit and the impact of the negotiations on the UK and on Europe, particularly in relation to financial services and fintech.
With the threat of Brexit, and the changing regulatory environment, fintechs that are looking to expand their offering in the future are having to deal with constant challenges. As outlined in previous blog posts, there are ways around these challenges, but how should your fintech plan for future challenges?
The fintech industry has been in the ascendancy for years now, and hundreds of small businesses have taken the sector by storm. Countless challenger banks have sprung up over recent years, many of them offering different services. However, there are still a number of challenges that fintechs face as they look to scale up and grow their business. Here are two of the most common issues encountered by challenger banks, and some potential ways to solve them.
It’s been widely reported that the Prime Minister will trigger Article 50 this week, formally beginning the process of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. As we enter the negotiations we do so with the understanding that, in all likelihood, it will be two years until Brexit is finalised and we have actually left.
At the start of February, the Competition and Markets Authority published its final order for banking. But while the report does talk about open banking and refers to the use of open APIs across the nine largest banks in the country, it does not focus on FinTech solutions.
While Brexit rolls on, and we edge nearer to the start of the negotiations, the government gave a little more of its position away at the beginning of February. After Parliament voted, by a huge majority, to give Theresa May the authority to trigger Article 50, the government presented its white paper outlining the proposals for the negotiations.
The world is awash with new payment systems. We have ApplePay, Android Pay, Samsung Pay, innumerable wallets and plenty of other new systems. But we still continue to do most of our shopping with cash and cards just as we always have.