Latest fintech research

In June, Capgemini released the World Fintech Report in Paris. The report’s headline conclusion was that although Open Banking has yet to reach maturity, the financial services industry is entering a new phase of innovation. The report referred to this new era as “Open X”, which will require deeper collaboration and specialisation.

The report is based on a global survey encompassing responses from over one hundred traditional financial services firms and forty fintechs including banking and lending, payments and transfers, and investment management. The goal was to gain perspectives from both parts of the industry and explore the emergence of Open Banking in financial services. It sheds light on the impact the new ecosystem will have on all the stakeholders, the challenges and concerns that firms will face, and the emergence of new businesses and ways to boost income.

The report can be downloaded from the CapGemini website here.

 

Main conclusions

The report’s authors believe that these new trends will transform industry norms and assumptions about the future. Their belief is that Open X is being driven by four fundamental shifts:

• A move away from a product-centred approach to an emphasis on customer experience
• The evolution of data as the critical asset
• A shift from prioritising ownership to facilitating shared access
• Emphasis on partnering to innovate instead of buying or building new solutions

In some respects, this feels very similar to the original trends that were discussed when Open Banking was first talked about. However, reports like this underline that the direction of travel certainly seems to be towards a linked ecosystem, with APIs at the centre of new banking and payment propositions.

 

APIs will be critical enablers

Not surprisingly, the authors state that APIs, which allow third parties to access bank systems and data in a controlled environment, will be catalysts for creating the ‘Open X marketplace’. While customer data is already widely shared and used in the industry, standardised APIs are not currently commonplace. Although requirements and regulations add complexity, standardisation will help to reduce fraud, improve interoperability, increase speed to market, and make it easier to generate scale in commercial models.

The report finds that the industry is looking at two potential avenues for creating revenue from APIs. The first is revenue sharing (which 60% of banks and 70% of fintechs think is feasible), and API access fees (supported by 46% of banks and 55% of fintechs). However, only about a third of banking executives said they are currently well equipped to create income from APIs.

From our perspective, we at Iliad believe the biggest barrier is not how to develop propositions that generate revenue; there are already some great ideas out there. The largest issue financial institutions face is how to develop and launch these new propositions successfully. Banks currently face massive challenges in trying to innovate using their own legacy systems. Trying to add new technology and bring the old and the new worlds together is giving Chief Technology Officers and IT Directors sleepless nights.

We have written extensively on this topic and you can read more about the challenges and how to successfully implement APIs here.

 

Barriers to collaboration

Effective collaboration is known to be one of the key ingredients of success and the report considers factors which may prevent this. 66% of banks and 70% of fintechs pointed to a difference in the other’s organisational culture/mind-set, and 52% of banks and 70% of fintechs mentioned process barriers. A lack of long-term vision and objectives were listed as problems by 54% of banks and 60% of fintechs.

Only 26% of bank executives and 43% of FinTech leaders said they had identified the right Open Banking collaboration partner. These responses suggest that many banks and fintechs remain unprepared for Open Banking, let alone for the increased demands of data sharing and integration that a new era could bring.

 

Specialist support

If you want to learn more about how to create an environment which will help you take advantage of APIs, please call us on +44(0)113 243 0004 or email us at info@iliad-solutions.com.