The Collision of Fintech and Traditional Banking

Commercial banks, the main culprits behind the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, remain ‘too big to fail’. There is strong public support for reducing the control they exert over the economy and society. But how to achieve this? Movements are campaigning for deep policy change. Radical free market advocates demand an end to government guarantees extended to banks and their automatic bailouts by taxpayers. Others, such as Positive Money, want to strip commercial banks of the power of money creation, and hand it over to a state-owned Central Bank. However, policy is not the only route to change. Technology will also play a crucial role in shaping Financial Services and the wider economy.
Sasha Karim will be our speaker on Monday, 9 January. Sasha is a full-time technology investor, a student of the banking system and supporter of the Positive Money movement. He will argue that commercial banks face an unprecedented existential threat from innovative “FinTech” companies, who harness the power of the Internet, Big Data and Artificial Intelligence.

Could it be a lucky coincidence that technology is here to save us from the current system, just at the very point mass disillusionment is setting in? Sasha’s talk will describe how technologies like Peer-to-Peer Lending and Mobile Payments actually work, and how they might disrupt core banking functions, such as lending and the payment system. He will further argue that some of Positive Money’s desired outcomes should arise naturally without the need for revolution, but that a major rethink of the Financial System will be still be necessary.

This will be a joint event co-hosted by LEDS and Positive Money. The format will be a presentation followed by an open group discussion.