Sue Britton, Advisor, Corporate Innovation & Partnerships
September 26th, 2018
Sue Britton is CEO & Founder of FGS (FinTech Growth Syndicate) – Canada’s leading FinTech innova[...]
Why Open Banking Represents a Seismic Shift for Fintech
Wharton | University of Pennsylvania | Jan 16, 2019
Open banking, a collaborative model in which banking data is shared with third-party players, is expected to revolutionize the financial services ecosystem. For consumers, the opening up of banking data could mean better control over their finances. At the same time, the trend has also raised concerns over data privacy and security.
In a conversation with Knowledge@Wharton, Jane Barratt, chief advocacy officer at MX, a Utah-based company that provides data to financial institutions and fintechs, talks about how open banking will impact legacy institutions as well as nimble startups.
Knowledge@Wharton: What is open banking? What are some of the factors that have led to the opening up of banking data to make it shareable via secure APIs [application programming interface] with third parties?
Jane Barratt: Over the past decade or so, we have seen open government and other open initiatives. There’s an expectation now of increased transparency. The idea of people sharing their data — their financial data — is not a new one. It’s happening, and it’s happening with methods that aren’t necessarily private or secure or transparent. People don’t really know where their data is going. Open banking is basically accessing the APIs that the financial institutions use to get greater transparency into your own data, and then being able to share that, with your consent and permission of course, with third parties of your choice.
See: MoF Consultation (Deadline Feb 11): Department of Finance Canada Launches Consultations on Open Banking
Knowledge@Wharton: Could you give some examples of how this is happening, both in the U.S. and in other parts of the world?
Barratt: The U.S. is in the early stages of having an ecosystem built around open banking. Europe has had PSD2 [the revised Payment Services Directive]. You’ve got open banking in the U.K. European banks have a head start on the U.S. in terms of getting the frameworks and the technology in place.
There have been some gaps in terms of understanding by the general public about what open banking actually is. If there is a use case for sharing your data, most people understand. “I can use it to share data with my accountant or a budgeting app.” Or, “I don’t have to manually share my data through a statement or [by] writing it down for them.” But the ecosystem around it is still coalescing.
When you look at Europe or Australia, for example, or potentially Canada and Mexico, these are countries that are leading with regulators. Regulators and governments have come together, and they have a strong seat at the table. Australia has a singular consumer data right — not rights. It’s just the data right, which is that it’s yours. They’re starting with open banking as the first vertical, and then moving into energy and telecommunications. You can see your usage and pricing and competitive offers.
“There’s a lot of talk of the customers being at the center of everything we do, but organization charts do not reflect that.”
And you can see information that often used to be behind the scenes within institutions. The U.S. is much more of an industry-led solution versus a government-led solution. It is by far the most complex banking model in the world. There is a lot of momentum, but it’s still relatively early days.
Knowledge@Wharton: What changes do you think open APIs will bring to banks’ organizational structures and also their competitive positions in the market?
Barratt: From the early days of digital, I used to joke, “Show me a website, and I can draw you your org chart,” because it was always laid out by division and byproduct. There’s a lot of talk of the customers being at the center of everything we do, but organization charts do not reflect that. You now have companies investing heavily in, say, data lakes. These tell us where our customers are and what they do. I think that will start to coalesce around organizational changes.
For instance, who is driving the structure of this? Who is extracting the intelligence from it? How is it being put to work? That’s a more sensible organizational approach than every division having their own databases and CRM and all of the different product databases. It has gotten very messy over the years. Hopefully, true data centricity will come about through how data is collected and what tools are layered on top of it, and all this will help the end customer.
See: Fintech firms want to shake up banking, and that worries the Fed
We have some data on return on investment from both the institutional perspective and the individual perspective. We have seen that when someone can access their data and is given access to tools, their financial strength improves. Institutions spend a lot of money acquiring customers and cross-selling to customers. Instead of this, institutions could focus on reducing high-interest debt, increasing deposits and moving customers up the value chain to higher value products.
There is now so much more competition [to be the] customer’s primary financial institution — even Amazon could be a peer at some point soon. If financial institutions can organize themselves around customer outcomes, they will be able to retain that primary financial institution status. But if they continue to just cross-sell a bunch of products, then it’s going to be [downhill] for them.
Knowledge@Wharton: Will a platform strategy be profitable for incumbent banks that own most of the deposit and lending market share?
Barratt: Banks are already platforms, especially institutions that have multiple product lines around insurance and deposits and lending. They just haven’t acknowledged it yet. It’s not that big of a stretch to put a level of intelligence on top of it with which people can engage. At present, the language is still around segments. For instance, if you’re newly married, you’re put in that segment. But your financial profile may be the same as a boomer because you’ve inherited money or you’ve got good financial habits and you’ve got good savings. And then you have boomers who have the same profiles as millennials.
It’s only when you get to a platform level that you can extract the intelligence around who a person is based on their true profile. Who I am with my credit card company is different from who I am with my insurance company, or who I am with my primary institution. No one has given me a really great reason to connect all of them. And that is the platform that an institution could be, because they have the biggest advantage out of anyone in the ecosystem, which is trust.
I’ve trusted you all this time with my money. I could trust you with my data. There is a great quote from Walter Wriston, who was the CEO and chairman of Citicorp in the 1970s. He said, “Information about money is as valuable as the money itself.” An institution could be a major value-add player in the data-as-currency space. No one’s talking about this as yet. It could be a seismic shift in the industry.
Knowledge@Wharton: How should challenger banks position themselves in this environment?
Barratt: Challenger banks have done a great job in different countries, to varying degrees. They have done a good job of being more digitally savvy. That has been their value proposition. “I’m going to give you a better app. I’m going to give you a better experience. I’m going to give you better transparency.”
See: Passion For Banking Innovation Fueled By Fintech, Big Tech Disruptors
They haven’t necessarily invested in their brands or in the trust. As your financial life becomes more complex, are you going to trust your deposit account with your mortgage or insurance provider? It’s still early days to be able to point to a challenger, but I think there are some examples of players who have done an amazing job, like Aspiration out of Los Angeles, which is a values-led bank.
“The newer players are telling compelling stories and offering compelling digital experiences.”
Knowledge@Wharton: What are some of the key lessons that the bigger institutions could learn from them?
Barratt: It’s about being able to tell a stronger story. There is a genuine human need to understand the story behind companies with which you do business. The newer players are telling compelling stories and offering compelling digital experiences. Of course, bigger institutions can do it. They can micro-target it down to the individual if they wanted to and tell a story that’s great for me. It’s just that organizationally they’re not set up for it at this point in time.
Knowledge@Wharton: Is the introduction of APIs going to bring improvements in banking services? If so, what might be some examples?
Barratt: Definitely. We are seeing giant institutions engaging in a deep way with the ecosystem from a contractual perspective. The data aggregators, who have traditionally been the middle men between the fintechs and the APIs, are doing a lot more direct connection. People no longer have to share their credentials. Out into the ecosystem, you can now have much more secure, token-led engagements.
What some of the institutions are doing is that they are opening up their internal APIs. It’s not heavy lifting for them. You can’t see everything. But they’re getting out there quickly, and they are then seeing how the data moves.
For them, it’s less around, “Let’s make this a uni-directional flow of data.” It’s very much the expectation that it’s bi-directional. And if I can get the incentive to connect my investments, insurance, etc. back to my primary institution, they’re in a much better place to be able to service me.
See: RBC first Canadian bank to open an API developer portal
Knowledge@Wharton: What do you think are the biggest challenges of open banking for both banks and for their customers?
Barratt: With increased transparency, there is definitely increased risk. There is an expectation that the industry should be able to solve these challenges and risks — because that’s what we’ve been doing. But there is a nefarious element to the financial services industry, and so [the question is] with more open data, is there more chance for more scammers, for example? The answer generally — and in theory — should be no, because the personally identifiable information (PII) is taken out. All I’ve done is to allow someone to have a look at my transactions. That’s not going to track back to me. So, the risk element from privacy and transparency should be reduced. However, there are some very creative scammers out there.
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Read More
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Read More
Read More
Coindesk |Michael J Casey | Jul 15, 2019 Let’s be clear: It was not the substance of Donald Trump’s tweet that made his critique of bitcoin and Libra so important last week. It should be of no surprise that this US President would declare himself “not a fan” of “highly volatile” cryptocurrencies “based on thin air” that “facilitate unlawful behavior” or that he much prefers a “dependable and reliable” currency “called the United States Dollar!” (Anyone who assumed Trump would be a “drain-the-swamp” libertarian advocate for censorship-resistant money had an ill-informed view of a man whose government is stacked with former Wall Street execs, who opposes free trade and immigration, and takes a draconian approach to a variety of civil rights and social liberties.) What matters is the very fact that a sitting president mentioned cryptocurrencies at all. Indeed, from a price perspective, Trump’s disparaging remarks are, on balance, positive for bitcoin. By Friday evening, the post-tweet price action reflected that. See: Fintech Fridays Episode 32: Rallying behind Bitcoin with Frederick T. Pye More importantly, the tweet marks a symbolic milestone in the gradual but ever-expanding presence that cryptocurrency occupies in the public conversation around money and policy. It also marks ...
Read More
Read More
Cointelegraph | Helen Partz | July 10, 2019 Global payment giant Visa has recorded its second investment in a crypto project by leading a $40 million funding round of Anchorage startup, according to a Fortune report on July 10. Visa has reportedly led the round along with major cryptocurrency venture capital (VC) firm Blockchain Capital to support institutional-grade crypto custody service Anchorage, which previously raised $17 million in an investment led by Andreessen Horowitz. In the new round, both the amount of Visa’s contribution and Anchorage’s private valuation were not disclosed, the report notes. Both Visa and Anchorage are founding members of Facebook’s cryptocurrency project Libra, which was officially revealed on June 18. See: Ethereum will match Visa in scale in a ‘couple of years’ says founder As Fortune noted, the recent funding round is the second known investment of Visa in a crypto-related firm, with the payment giant having participated in a $30 million funding round in blockchain startup Chain back in 2015 alongside with Nasdaq and Citi. In late 2018, Chain was acquired by Stellar-focused firm Lightyear. The new funding will be used in Anchorage’s mission to provide an alternative to cold storage-based institutional custodies to ensure the ...
Read More
Read More
The Block Crypto | Frank Chaparro | July 10, 2019 Quick Take The Security and Exchange Commission approved Blockstack’s token offering under Reg A+, an accelerated path for smaller companies to raise money publicly This is the first approval the SEC gave for a token offering, after a series of crackdowns the regulator led against unregistered ICOs it deems as securities The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) gave blockchain startup Blockstack the go-ahead today to conduct a $28 million digital token offering under Regulation A+, the first token offering of its kind ever approved by the SEC, according to the firm. The SEC has launched a series of crackdowns on unregistered initial coin offerings (ICOs), with the latest including a dispute with messaging app Kik over its $100 million ICO. Still, Reg A+ offerings have had their own headaches. Reg A+ is a fast track for smaller companies to publicly raise money with less strenuous accounting and disclosure standards than a regular token offering requires. Even so, Blockstack founder Muneeb Ali told the Wall Street Journal that the process is still very long and costly since the SEC had to devise a brand new protocol for token offerings under Reg ...
Read More
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Read More
Read More
CNN Business | Clare Duffy | July 4, 2019 New York (CNN Business)American lawmakers are concerned that Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency may try to challenge the dollar and are demanding the company stand down. They want Facebook to immediately halt development of Libra until regulators have time to examine the plans and "take action," according to a letter sent Tuesday to the company by a group of lawmakers from the House Financial Services Committee. Chairwoman Maxine Waters, a Democrat from California, first suggested a moratorium on development the day Libra was announced. The new letter represents an escalation of pressure on Facebook's digital currency plans, which have also been scrutinized by regulators around the world. Other interest groups have weighed in, too: More than 30 organizations sent a similar request to Facebook on Tuesday, saying US and foreign regulatory systems are not prepared to address questions about "national sovereignty, corporate power, consumer protection" and other issues raised by the project. The lawmakers said they want to hold public hearings on the "risks and benefits of cryptocurrency-based activities and explore legislative solutions." "Failure to cease implementation before we can do so risks a new Swiss-based financial system that is too big to ...
Read More
Read More
Bicameral Ventures Release | June 27, 2019 TORONTO, June 27, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Bicameral Ventures, the fund powering value creation through their "Interconnected Investing" model, announced today a highly strategic investment in Balance aimed at accelerating its growth. The investment brings Bicameral's portfolio to nine projects that are targeting challenges in various layers of the technology stack, with an aim of delivering superior end-user experiences by leveraging the blockchain and associated virtualized technologies. "Most M&A destroys value, especially as the problems centrally-planned corporations are trying to solve grow increasingly complex. Instead, Bicameral has brought together a group of independent yet 'interconnected' projects working at all layers of this novel technology stack, to attack multiple facets of the largest challenges. Balance, with its unique take on institutional grade custody for digital assets and hyper focus on UX and connectivity, provides an important building block in the delivery of unparalleled end user experiences that leverage decentralized technology," said Alex McDougall, Chief Investment Officer, Bicameral Ventures. See: Crypto Custody: Our Shared Journey Towards Mass Adoption Balance adds another critical component to Bicameral's unique portfolio of highly complementary projects focused on accelerating Web 3.0 adoption. As a key aspect of executing on Bicameral's "Interconnected Investing" ...
Read More
Read More
Bank of England Review of UK’s financial system | By Huw van Steenis | June 20, 2019 Overview My report, The Future of Finance , looks at how the economy is changing; how finance can serve and support these changes; and what it could mean for the Bank of England. We have looked beyond the immediate challenges posed by the UK’s withdrawal from the EU to identify longer-term trends shaping the economy and finance — and how the Bank can support this evolution for the good of the people of the United Kingdom. A new economy is emerging driven by changes in technology, demographics and the environment. The UK is also undergoing several major transitions that finance has to respond to. What this means for finance Finance is likely to undergo intense change over the coming decade. The shift to digitally-enabled services and firms is already profound and appears to be accelerating. The shift from banks to market-based finance is likely to grow further. See: Tech’s raid on the banks EY Global FinTech Adoption Index finds over half (64%) of global consumers use FinTech The Roadblocks to European Fintech Expansion Ultra low rates, new regulations and the need to invest ...
Read More
Read More
Coindesk | Nikhilesh De | June 28, 2019 Canada-based social media company Kik is relinquishing control of its legal defense crowdfunding campaign to the Blockchain Association in an effort to broaden the initiative’s reach. Kik and the Blockchain Association announced Friday that the D.C.-based lobbyist group would be taking over “Defend Crypto,” the crowdfunding initiative that Kik previously launched to raise funds for its ongoing battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. While Kik will retain the $5 million it initially contributed to the fund, all of the other donations – some $1.9 million – will be set aside for other crypto projects facing similar lawsuits. What’s more, the company intends to donate $500,000 in kin tokens to help support the fund. The move represents a significant departure from the effort’s initial goal. According to the campaign’s website, all donations were supposed to solely support Kik’s legal efforts. “Once the case against Kik is resolved, all remaining funds, including any portion of the initial $5 [million] contribution by Kik, will be allocated to a nonprofit organization to be used for other initiatives that help with innovation in our industry,” the website read as of June 24. However, in its announcement on ...
Read More
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