Digitalization drives the financial industry:
- New technologies have had a strong impact on financial services in the current decade.
- They have already changed significantly (and in some countries even disruptively) the way financial services are implemented and delivered to retail as well as business clients.
- This trend continues with new topics like Artificial Intelligence in Finance or Blockchain starting to have an impact on us.
- New players have entered finance, coming from e-commerce, social media or other businesses.
- FinTech companies have become a growing part of our financial centers. They help us to prosper, to attract talent and investments.
Leading international financial centers proactively support their FinTech ecosystems:
- We moderate discussions with regulatory authorities on creating a level playing field between traditional financial institutions and FinTech companies.
- We build up attractive FinTech spaces, which together with universities and business schools become the nuclei of our ecosystems.
- We establish partnerships with our peers for supporting local FinTech companies to expand globally and for attracting foreign FinTechs.
- We support matchmaking between FinTechs and foreign FinTechs or banks.
- We maintain links to foreign regulators, accelerators, incubators and FinTech spaces for making global expansion as easy as possible.
This creates a win-win situation for all parties: for the FinTechs, for banks, for SMEs and end consumers receiving a broader service offering and for financial centers in becoming more international and staying at the forefront of innovation.
Our work in the FinTech Initiative:
Discussing Best Practices on
- Building up FinTech ecosystems
- Developing talent in FinTech
- Encourage cooperation between FinTechs and (traditional) financial institutions e.g. banks
- Organizing international matchmaking events
Discussing Innovations in Finance and how financial centers can support their development, e.g.
- Digital Identity
- Artificial Intelligence
- Blockchain
- Cybersecurity
Objectives of the FinTech Initiative:
- First of all, we want to encourage close cooperation between our members in FinTech in general.
- We want to stress that financial centers embrace innovation in finance and actively contribute to developments in that space.
- Furthermore, we want to proactively identify new areas in financial technology, which need closer coordination within the WAIFC.