Global Fintech Year in Review 2019 and Year to Come 2020

Greater scrutiny of Big Tech in finance

We expect to see continued and more coordinated scrutiny of the moves by Big Tech into finance by regulators in the finance, data and competition spheres with the potential for more enforcement action as regulators focus on the protection of consumers.

Scrutiny of the financial sector’s resilience to cyber risk including potential fines for previous IT failures

We expect firms to intensify their focus on operational resilience in 2020 to address commercial risks and meet mounting concerns amongst regulators. This is in the wake of larger and more frequent systems failures and hacks, and in the context of certain systemic risks being concentrated as firms increasingly outsource key functions.  Firms will look to collaborate where appropriate including on cybersecurity arrangements.

Increasing industry and policymaker collaboration on tackling cyber crime in financial services

Regulators will prioritise public-private engagement and industry outreach to find tech-driven solutions to cyber crime threats, including on threat assessment and action plans, information sharing, payments systems and authorised push payment fraud, digital identity services, the use of cryptoassets for money laundering, and the detection and reporting of suspicious transactions (including through the innovative use of cryptography and machine learning).  Whilst some of the necessary tech already notionally exists, in 2020 regulators and major firms will strive to agree on market-wide solutions that are more effective than siloed efforts.