VC FinTech Investment Landscape

The Open Banking era is upon us. Banks are trying to implement it, Payment Processors are trying to facilitate it, and Central Banks and Policymakers are trying to regulate it. After PSD2 was introduced, Banks all over the world are in a race to introduce some form of Open Banking and be labeled as “Open Banking Ready.”

Payment Processors are coming up with innovative methods to stay in the payment loop without being left out. Central Banks are now faced with the daunting task of standardizing the Open Banking approach for a specific country or region and are thinking of novel ways to do so. All these developments lead to new opportunities for FinTech Enablers and Solution Providers across the globe.

Join in as we discuss:
- What is Open Banking?
- How Open Banking can be applied by Banks, Payment Processors, and Central Banks?
- Some use cases and real-world examples of how Open Banking is being implemented
- What to expect in 2021 in the Open Banking space
- Opportunities for Solution Providers

Are we prepared for the new disruptive era of the financial system? The current financial system is fissure, because ancestral doctrines held by few with lack of ethical evolution, social resistance and own benefits. Is it necessary investing in technology and money in this exhausted system? Or is preferable investing in technological and digital disruption for a new horizon of light, identified as Newance.

Join this session as we discuss:

 Fact and Figures Overview
 Polarization Model and Process
o Financial Services
o Private + Centrals Banks
o Customers + Money Flow
o Technology + Digital Structure
 Newance Model and Process
o Progressive Services
o Digital Ecosystem Flow
o Customers Value Added
o Technology + Digital Transformation
o Benefits + Independence
 Newance in disruptive progress
o Mapping of Maturation and Risk Levels
o Technology + Digital Requirements (ROI)
o System Execution + Propagation
o Results and Expectations

While Fintech services and platforms become more and more prevalent in our day-to-day life, seems like other relevant business platforms on the digital sphere are watching the newcomers as APIs to be consumed only, not as a relevant component of the product or service lifecycle these incumbent platforms provide for their customer base. However, fintech platforms represent a huge opportunity for these mature digital platforms to gain insight into other opportunities that were not visible when you stop seeing what happens before, during and after a customer pays for the order using a banking or fintech platform:

Increased sales from customers that, with a much-needed credit line, could be placing a bigger order
Increased brand fidelity if smaller, more frequent transactions are brought together to recognize repeat business, even if the customer did not claim the transactions
New revenue streams coming from fees generated by insurance policies, credit card reference or invoice factoring created as part of day-to-day business
Better value for customers when larger orders can be placed on behalf of a pool of customers that bid together for discounted prices on volume.

There are only a few examples of the opportunities that established digital and brick-and-mortar players are letting pass for not understanding that the main advantage that fintech companies bring to the table is the ability to see a problem or an opportunity from a clean-slate perspective; as well as the agility to design and implement for specific businesses and models. A revenue-sharing model between fintech and established layers for the benefits of customized, advanced analytics would be the model to think outside of the brick-and-mortar box.

We’re in the midst of the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) revolution. DeFi is smart contract implementation of financial processes like
lending, collateralization, asset management, etc,. From the first week of August 2020, the total value locked in DeFi jumped by a
staggering 85%, from $4.2bn on August 3rd to $7.8bn on August 30th, which has created quite a market buzz. This enthusiasm is
well-founded: blockchain technology has proven that it can streamline and even transform the world of finance in exciting ways, and
there have certainly been some big winners in this space. But, as dynamic as this community may be, it remains unregulated and
immature, and that means that there are also some really big losers, with six documented smart-contract hacks having taken place
in the first 6 months of 2020, for example.

Working closely with regulators from the US to Singapore and Australia to Kenya, Securrency understands the need for automated
compliance processes among legacy financial services providers to seamlessly facilitate entrance into the market. Through its
distributed identity, compliance framework, and state-of-the-art infrastructure, Securrency is providing transparency to strengthen
investor confidence and offer regulators increased oversight of market activity. Enhancing capital formation and stimulating global
liquidity, Securrency is opening up a world of possibility.

In this session, we will discover;

What is DeFi and what are its innovations?

What are the main DeFi models and where do their markets lie?

Where is DeFi going and how big can it get?

How can we limit DeFi’s use for nefarious activities and protect users/ investors from hacks, scams and technology risk?

Is there an opportunity for corporations and financial institutions to get involved?

The first wave of FinTech was squarely focused on retail customers. Now, out of expediency more than anything else, Corporates have caught the wave and are adopting new digital solutions to improve experience and create efficiencies across their payments needs.

Sara Elinson, a FinTech executive who advises companies on emerging trends and growth opportunities, and Dan McClure, a Risk executive who sits on Wells Fargo’s first line of defense, will share perspectives on the biggest opportunities facing banks and their corporate customers.

They’ll debate the opportunities facing us now and on the horizon along with potential risks these opportunities can create. Topics will include:

· Products & use cases: Real-time payments, cross-border payments, AP/AR automation
· Foundational technologies: AI, digital assets
· New business models: API, platform, data

Speakers:
Dan McClure, SVP, Head of Corporate and Investment Banking Strategic Intelligence Group, Wells Fargo
Sara Elinson, FinTech & Payments M&A Leader, EY

Investment management has traditionally been looked at as a linear field, but economic systems are complex, high dimensional & non-linear. With the advances made in big data and machine learning, researchers are finding greater use of machine learning in investment management. We'll explore this in the webinar

Resistant AI protects high-risk automated decisions taken by machine learning, AI, and statistical models in the fintech and financial sector. We secure the existing credit risk assessment, fraud detection and anti-money laundering systems. Any of these applications offers high reward to any adversary that can manipulate or evade them at scale.

Motivated adversaries can and do use modern AI techniques or simple cunning to commit fraud by exploiting the vulnerabilities of machine learning methods and inconsistency or insufficiency of the training data. Resistant AI provides:
* forgery detection (for documents including payslips, statements and other documents),
* continuous security monitoring to discover manipulation or attacks, and
* significant reduction of false alarms or rejections.

The Future of Data and Blockchain.

90% of the world's data was created in just the last 3 years. Imagine how much data would be created in the next 5 years, 10 years or more. Data is the new gold and whoever controls data would be the new leaders and kingpins in the age of data and data supremacy. With the huge surge in data many companies are ill-equipped or just not ready to be able to handle data or even to capitalize upon data.

Key takeaways in this webinar:
- Technology trends, past, current and future
- What does data hold for us in the future and key technologies to be able to capitalize on data
- Trends, problems and more important opportunities for us in the coming age of data
- What technologies are important to be able to future proof and future ready ourselves
- Will blockchain change the world? Fact or fiction in our new age of data
- Why does all these matter to you?

When it comes to growth marketing, most successful campaigns strike a balance between customer acquisition and retention, paid and organic campaigns, targeted and wide-reach efforts, personalization and automation.

Investing time and efforts with the right blend almost always leads to higher ROI, a wider reach and overall superior results. With fast-paced changes in the Fintech industry, let’s see how this could be leveraged in the best way for your marketing demands in 2021.

The fintech industry continues to evolve. As one market matures, another emerges. Leading challenger banks seek acquisitions to broaden their offerings and grow their user bases, while Big Tech companies like Facebook expand into new markets like in India and Brazil. Where and how else can banks and payments companies look for opportunities moving forward, and what hurdles might they encounter?

Join this panel to learn about:
- The biggest challenges in banking & payments around the globe
- New market niches that fintech leaders worth a look
- Issues fintechs may face while entering a new market

Speakers:
Carol Nolan Drake, Founder & President/CEO, Carlow Consulting LLC (Moderator)
Olga Mariela Januszewski, Risk Analyst, Garantia de Valores
Michael Hobbs, Founder, Reputable Consulting
Katharina Lueth, VP Europe, Raisin

There is arguably nothing more critical to the economy than to keep money moving smoothly and securely, and in these unprecedented times, the flow of payments has been an important constant. The current global situation has highlighted the value of investing in robust, efficient and customer-centric payments solutions, and for this an eye must remain on future strategic development.

Join this panel to hear about:
Payments in a pandemic: Why Payments change functions should re-double their efforts
Headlines beyond 2020: An overview of emerging technology and data opportunities and challenges
Case Study: ISO20022 for your business and customers - more than just a tech compliance programme.

Speakers:
Matt Britton (Director, BCS)
Abdulla Mashaal (Managing Consultant, BCS)
Lorna Croot (Principal Consultant, BCS)
Ramin Irvani (Senior Consultant, BCS)
Mark Smith (Senior Consultant, BCS)

In this presentation, federal prosecutors Grant Rabenn and Paul Hemesath will provide an overview of the darkweb, including how it works, what crimes are taking place on it, and how businesses and individuals can prevent themselves from becoming victims of darkweb criminals.

The darkweb has become prominent locale for all types of cybercriminals, including hackers, identify thieves, narcotics traffickers, and money launderers. Whether or not they know it, businesses and individuals face threats on a daily basis from these illicit actors. Knowledge is half the battle, and in this presentation, we will teach you what is currently happening on the darkweb, and what businesses and individuals can do to protect themselves.

We will also provide information on what to do if you have already been victimized. The last portion of the presentation will focus on financial institutions transacting in cryptocurrencies—the means of the exchange on the darkweb—and what those financial institution can do to detect and prevent money laundering.

Speakers:
Grant Rabenn, Assistant U.S. Attorney, Eastern District of California
Paul Hemesath, Assistant U.S. Attorney, Eastern District of California

Fighting financial fraud through digital fingerprints – a view from Eastern Europe on Customer Due Diligence and Enhanced Due Diligence. Join this webcast as we discuss:

→ Fighting financial fraud, combatting money laundering and financing of terrorism continues to be a global challenge
→ The 5th and the upcoming 6th EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive all together bring significant homogenization and in reality, many new requirements to the market within the European Union
→ How to comply with all the new requirements in Central and Eastern Europe, a region generally identified with shortfalls in the AML/CFT frameworks?
→ What are the new challenges in Customer Due Diligence and Enhanced Due Diligence?
→ How to re-configure the screening and monitoring tools in order to mitigate the AML risks?
→ What is digital fingerprinting and how it can help fighting financial fraud?

In this session, we will discuss a range of new emerging technologies for privacy and confidentiality in blockchain and analytics. Tokenization on Blockchain is a steady trend. Tokenization is a method that converts a digital value into a digital token. Tokenization can be used as a method that converts rights to an asset into a digital token.

This session discusses industry standards and emerging privacy-enhanced computation techniques, secure multiparty computation, and trusted execution environments. We will review how different industries are taking opportunity of these privacy preserving techniques. We will also review secure data-sharing for financial institutions and discuss implementations that can provide scalability across hybrid cloud models.

Compliance professionals spent 50% of their time on low-value tasks in 2019, according to Thomson Reuters. As these professionals increase the time they spend on high-value tasks, it is worth asking, "what tools make their work even more efficient?" While firms plan to increase budgets, the expenses will increase due to personal liability and education costs. Still, team numbers will not grow, despite a growing workload. How can compliance professionals get more out of their work in less time?

Join this panel to hear about:
- The effect the right tools can have on your organization
- Tools & technologies streamlining regulatory compliance processes
- Best practices for a remote compliance team

Speakers:
Craig Fetterman, Head of Solutions Consulting, Jumio (Moderator)
Ulf Mattsson, Chief Security Strategist, Protegrity
Dirk Schrader, Global VP of Product Marketing & Business Development, NNT.
Karnika Yashwant, Chairman & Managing Director, KEY Difference Media

Merchant banking – how to get ahead of the competition? Meet Richard Osborne, Product Owner Acquiring at DynaPay Ltd, who will speak about making the most of new revenue opportunities and not missing out on a huge potential of retail markets.

Join our session as we discuss:
- Understanding a different online customer type - make the customer experience fit.
- Technology & back office efficiencies - online payments bring online technologies. What needs to change?
- Fraud & security - overcome customer fears as well as merchant ones.
- Go global - target new countries and regions. Big challenge or huge opportunity?
- Managing a multi channel offering. Where does online fit into an office business?

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to hear crisp ideas, get insights and be inspired by great examples.

Philippine banks are finding themselves in unfamiliar territory as new regulations require
banks to prepare and report on their sustainable finance frameworks. With the right
tools and training, banks are primed for compliance and help move the industry forward.
Join this panel to:
- Hear about the newest tools and strategies available to help Philippine banks navigate
requirements around sustainability and climate risk reporting.