As the COVID-19 pandemic rolls on, banks must prepare for a long winter.
Opening remarks from the Minister for Digital Infrastructure, detailing the government's plans for digital identity in the UK
Karsten Wenzlaff, Advisor
August 26th, 2025
Karsten Wenzlaff is a Crowdfunding and Fintech Expert from Germany. He is Secretary-General of Digit[...]
Category Archives: Fintech and Networking Events
McKinsey’s Global Banking Annual Review 2020: A test of resilience
McKinsey & Company | Mark Staples | Dec 9, 2020
As the COVID-19 pandemic rolls on, banks must prepare for a long winter.
Ten months into the COVID-19 crisis, hopes are growing for vaccines and new therapeutics. But victory over the novel coronavirus still lies some nine to 12 months in the future. In the meantime, second and third waves of infection have arrived in many countries, and as people begin to crowd indoors in the months ahead, the infection rate may get worse. As a result, the potential for near-term economic recovery is uncertain. The question of the day is, “When will the economy return to its 2019 level and trajectory of growth?”
Our research finds that in the months and years to come, the pandemic will present a two-stage problem for banks (Exhibit 1). First will come severe credit losses, likely through late 2021; almost all banks and banking systems are expected to survive. Then, amid a muted global recovery, banks will face a profound challenge to ongoing operations that may persist beyond 2024. Depending on scenario, from $1.5 trillion to $4.7 trillion in cumulative revenue could be forgone between 2020 and 2024. In our base-case scenario, $3.7 trillion of revenue will be lost over five years—the equivalent of more than a half year of industry revenues that will never come back.
Credit losses: Bend but don’t break
To curb the spread of the virus, societies around the world have attempted the heretofore unimaginable: they have shut their economies, twice in some cases, throwing tens of millions of people out of work and closing millions of businesses. Those people and businesses are banks’ customers, and their inability to keep up with their obligations will sharply increase personal and corporate defaults.
See:
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4 Digital Transformation Lessons that Banks Need to Learn from Covid-19
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Central banker bulletin: COVID-19 cash concerns to drive digital currency
In anticipation, global banks have provisioned $1.15 trillion for loan losses through third quarter 2020, much more than they did through all of 2019 (Exhibit 2). Banks have not yet had to take substantial write-offs; their forbearance programs and significant government support have kept households and companies afloat. But few expect this state of suspended animation to last. We project that in the base-case scenario, loan-loss provisions (LLPs) in coming years will exceed those of the Great Recession.
Revenues: More than $3 trillion forgone
In the second phase, impact will shift from balance sheets to income statements. In some respects, the pandemic will only amplify and prolong preexisting trends, such as low interest rates. But it will also reduce demand in some segments and geographies. On the supply side, we expect banks to become more selective in their risk appetite. Of course, there will be offsetting positive effects for the industry, such as a need to refinance existing debt, and some regions and industry segments will still benefit from secular tailwinds. In addition, government support programs should continue to support activity in some places.
A test of resilience: Restoring short-term economics
Banks responded extraordinarily well to the first phases of the crisis, keeping workers and customers safe and keeping the financial system operating well. Now they need equal determination to deal with what comes next by preserving capital and rebuilding profits. We see opportunities on both the numerator and denominator of ROE: banks can use new ideas to improve productivity significantly and can simultaneously improve capital accuracy.
Read: Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance and World Bank – Study COVID Crisis and Impact on Fintech Regulation
In our view, banks can use six moves to wring more productivity out of their operations. Here we consider just one of those six: speeding up the shift to digital banking that many customers are already making and reconfiguring the branch network, where demand has softened. In the past year, the use of cash and checks—core transactions for branches—has eased; in most markets, about 20 to 40 percent of consumers report using significantly less cash. In the meantime, customer interest in digital banking has jumped in many markets, although this trend varies widely. In the United Kingdom and the United States, only 10 to 15 percent of consumers are more interested in digital banking than they were before the crisis (and 5 to 10 percent are less interested). In Greece, Indonesia, Mexico, and Singapore, the “more interested” share ranges from 30 to 40 percent.
Continue to the full article --> here
Sign-up to download the 53 page PDF report --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Fintech, regtech and the role of compliance 2021
Reuters | Susannah Hammond | Dec 9, 2020
(Thomson Reuters Regulatory Intelligence) - The year 2020 has been a year of digital transformation and acceleration to meet the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. By necessity and by design firms have implemented the roll-out of technology, often at speed, to enable business activities to continue as countries went into lockdown. The applications that are covered by the term fintech are fast becoming part of financial services firms’ identity. In a marketplace that is still maturing, the question is whether corporate governance and the culture of financial services firms have kept up to pace with this new tech.
See: Ethereum Co-Founder’s Firm Starts Compliance Service for Tokens
Thomson Reuters Regulatory Intelligence's (TRRI) fifth annual survey report (link is: here) on fintech, regtech and the role of compliance explores these issues. This year's survey results represent the views and experiences of more than 400 compliance and risk practitioners.
The survey found the adoption and implementation of technology has taken a huge step forward during the pandemic, despite the continuing budget challenges that firms face. Sector growth is expected to accelerate in the coming months and years, despite a slowdown in new start-ups during 2020 due to the pandemic. Firms, and their customers, are realizing value from their use of a variety of fintech solutions.
Firms must be careful to deploy solutions on solid foundations and this means getting the corporate governance right. A quarter of respondents reported that boards and risk and compliance functions needed to be more involved in fintech solutions; an absence of appropriate skill sets may be one reason for this lack of involvement.
More G-SIFI firms this year said they were “neutral”, as opposed to “extremely or mostly positive”, when asked their opinion of fintech solutions. The survey did not explore the underlying reasons for this shift but it could be that the pandemic has restricted firms’ investment in fintech and more firms are having to make do with existing applications rather than buying new, more advanced applications that would meet their needs more closely.
See: Compliance, clients to drive new tech
Fintech presents extensive opportunities for firms in the future. The presence of bigtech and the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) will enable firms to increase customer-focused initiatives such as financial inclusion. To be able to exploit these areas firms need to overcome a number of challenges: budgetary limitations, weaknesses in corporate skill sets, the limitations of existing IT infrastructure and the developing regulatory picture. They must also ensure they have an appropriate corporate governance framework capable of managing the deployment of fintech systems.
You can download the Regtech compliance 2021 rport --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Matt Warman’s speech on digital identity at Identity Week 2020
UK Government | Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport | Nov 16, 2020
Opening remarks from the Minister for Digital Infrastructure, detailing the government's plans for digital identity in the UK
Good morning. It’s a great pleasure to be invited to speak at Identity Week 2020.
I truly believe that digital identity is one of the most exciting opportunities for growth and security in the UK economy, and I am excited to share my vision with you today.
Digital identity products are a vital building block for the economy of the future. They will enable smoother, cheaper, and more secure online transactions; they will simplify people’s lives, and boost business.
Digital identity solutions can also ensure that people have greater control of their identity data, and provide greater security and privacy standards.
See: FFCON Week 5 Wrap-up: Digital Identity & Convergence Marketplaces
It has the capacity to allow more people to open a bank account, to allow more people to start a new job faster, and to improve the safety and security of travel both within and beyond the UK — whether for business or pleasure.
Covid-19 has increased the demand for online services: 63% of people are learning a new skill online; 20% are buying groceries online; 20% are managing their money online; and 19% are now accessing health services online.
It is essential that all those in society who want to access services online are able to do so. Use of digital identity is key to unlocking this.
We want to enable the formation of a successful digital identity ecosystem in the UK so these benefits and those increased demands and expectations brought on by the pandemic can be fully realised.
The government is committed to enabling a digital identity system fit for the UK’s growing digital economy — without the need for identity cards — by working in partnership across government, the private sector, academia and civil society.
See: Tech CEOs call on political parties for policy action to drive digital economy
I want to ensure that UK values will be at the heart of this thinking to ensure that digital identity works for all who wish to use it, and that will be interoperable with as many markets and sectors as possible.
Last year we undertook a call for evidence so we could better understand the potential of digital identity to unlock the digital economy, improve user experience and access to services.
Respondents felt strongly that the government has an essential role to play in enabling secure digital identity solutions for the wider economy, and that the setting of standards is integral to this.
When we published our response to the call for evidence, we also published a set of principles that would underpin our approach to developing policy, namely: privacy; transparency; inclusivity; interoperability, proportionality; and good governance.
Security and consent underpin our approach. I don’t use these words lightly.
While we have been working with our international stakeholders to understand their approach to the development of digital identity policy, these principles have been developed deliberately and specifically to ensure that British values — your values — are the foundation upon which our digital world is built in the UK.
See: NCFA and KABN Systems North America enter multi-year exclusive partnership to promote Digital Identity in Canada
Policy on something as personal as the way in which we identify ourselves online can only be developed in this way.
By ensuring that the principles set out in our call for evidence response are at the heart of the UK’s digital identity ecosystem, those who choose to make use of a digital identity in the future will have confidence that there are measures in place to protect them.
Consumers will be assured that data confidentiality and privacy are at the centre of their digital identity and will be able to understand who, why, and when their data is being used for digital identity verification.
Over the past few months we have been working closely with experts throughout the private sector, academia and civil society to fully understand the ways we can balance these key principles, mitigate the effect of associated risks, and ensure that digital identities will truly work for those who wish to use them.
I know from my own engagement with these experts that we need agreed standards, ways of working, and a way to check they are being adhered to.
We will do this by establishing a trust framework of standards, rules, assurance and governance for the use of digital identity, in one place, that different organisations using or consuming digital identity can follow.
Such a framework would also enable people to reuse their digital identity to access a range of products and services.
See: A new denim collection gives jeans a digital identity
This trust framework will help organisations check identities and share attributes in a trusted and consistent way enabling interoperability, maintaining high levels of privacy, and increasing public confidence.
Because the foundation of this market will be based on trust, how we establish the framework is as important as what it says.
I have held a number of meetings with experts across the digital identity ecosystem — from supportive providers to hopeful private sector organisations to sceptical lobbyists. We are engaging openly with players across the ecosystem to hear your ideas — and your concerns — and incorporate them into our approach.
The development of this trust framework must be a collaborative, informed process to ensure that what we develop represents the very best of British innovation and British values.
We must also ensure that we work to enable an open, competitive market. The standards, regulations, and legislation that we are seeking to implement will not restrict innovation but, instead, will enable the implementation of safe and secure solutions that work for business and society alike.
This unique approach — building on lessons of those who have gone before us and developing an approach that works for the UK — will be critical in making us the world’s leading digital economy.
We are keen to engage with our international partners too, who are developing their own rules and regulations to establish a framework that allows us all to work together.
We are exploring the ways in which we can make direct links to other markets and nations to establish and build international recognition and interoperability.
I am excited to announce that we will be publishing the digital identity Trust Framework as an alpha in the new year.
Continue to the full article --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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[Event Nov 26, 2020]: Innovations in Financial Literacy and Education
Financial Literacy Committee
You're invited - Event Details
Thursday, November 26, 2020 1:00 PM EST
Register for this event --> here
As we mark the 10th anniversary of Financial Literacy Month, the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) is pleased to invite you to a dynamic event organized specifically for financial literacy stakeholders. This 90-minute session will focus on innovative, research-based approaches to financial literacy and feature guest speakers who will share expert insights and perspectives, followed by a panel discussion.
Moderator: Supriya Syal, Deputy Commissioner, Research, Policy and Education, FCAC
Panelists:
Rebecca Balcerzak, Senior Project Officer, Families Canada
Ruth Stephen, Director, Strategic Policy, Research & Experimentation, FCAC
Rim Charkani, CEO, WALO
Dilip Soman, Director, Behavioural Economics in Action Research Centre Rotman School of Management
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Luge Capital Canadian InsurTech Report & Event
Luge Capital | Gisele Karekezi | Nov 18, 2020
Luge Capital just released our Status of the Canadian InsurTech Landscape report today. It is an in-depth analysis of InsurTech technology trends, startup activities, venture funding as well as Luge’s perspective on future innovation and investment opportunities in the Canadian insurance industry.
You can check out the report HERE.
We are also hosting a webinar event to dig deeper into InsurTech investment trends and future opportunities with speakers from Liberty Mutual Strategic Ventures, Anthemis Group, Manulife Capital Ventures and Eos Venture Partners on December 1st, 4pm ET.
We would love to have you join us. Register
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Book Launch (Nov 17, 2020): The Technological Revolution in Financial Services: How Banks, Fintechs, and Customers Win Together
Michael King | Nov 16, 2020
The financial services industry is being transformed by heightened regulation, technological disruption, and changing demographics. These structural forces have lowered barriers to entry, increasing competition from within and outside the industry, in the form of entrepreneurial fintech start-ups to large, non-financial technology-based companies.
The Technological Revolution in Financial Services is an invaluable resource for those eager to understand the evolving financial industry. This edited volume outlines the strategic implications for financial services firms in North America, Europe, and other advanced economies. The most successful banks, insurance companies, and asset managers will partner with financial technology companies to provide a better and more innovative experience services to retail customers and small businesses. Ultimately this technological revolution will benefit customers and lead to a more open and inclusive financial system.
Book Launch Webinar
Nov 17, 2020 03:00 PM
Free to register --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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BrightTALK Webinar: Scaling Digital Banking Channels for Growth – Securely
BrightTALK | Webinar | Sep 30, 2020
Live Webinar:
Build trust, grow revenue and mitigate risk with the rise in digital transactions
Date: Oct 6, 2020
Time: 1:00pm CDT (Chicago, United States) / 2pm EDT
Length: 75mins
Consumers expect seamless and safe transactions through digital channels, and will seek out organizations that will meet their needs. With the recent COVID-19 pandemic, the shift to digital channels has been leaving many organizations scrambling to keep up. Financial institutions must now adapt their services to scale in digital channels to better serve their customers, yet the struggle of how to provide a secure yet seamless experience still remains.
See: Digital IDs Help Open Banking Reach Its Fullest Potential
At least 1 in 5 U.S. consumers polled by TransUnion have already been targeted by phishing and other economic environment COVID-19-related digital scams, while a 14% increase in risky financial services transactions has been observed by TransUnion.
Fortunately you can optimize your digital channels, grow revenue and mitigate your risk while providing an engaging experience. Please join Peter DeMars, CFE UMB Bank, Adam Miller, Director - CX practice from Temenos, and Matt Johnson from TransUnion (formerly iovation) as they discuss:
● How to manage the rise in digital transactions, and turn it into an channel for growth
● How to proactively address increasing and changing fraud such as such as account takeover, phishing and first party fraud
● How you can streamline decisioning and risk management to secure trust with device intelligence, real-time identity data checks
● Discover actionable strategies for success in the post COVID-19 environment
Register for this free webinar --> Now
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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