Productive Growth in UK Economy
This is the fourth annual British Business Bank report on Small Business Finance Markets, setting out the latest evidence on the ways in which finance markets support smaller business and help them contribute to improving productivity and growth in the UK economy.
Our understanding of smaller business finance markets, both in terms of demand for finance and the finance providers’ supply of finance, is essential to shaping our business plan and the design of our programmers and products. Macro-economic developments in 2017 have reinforced the need to ensure that small business have the finance they need to make a strong contribution to economic growth.
Emerging technologies disrupting the financial sector
Emerging technologies have reshaped the financial services industry through innovative means to cater to evolving customer expectations of personalisation and convenience. FinTech has evolved as one of the most innovative and cost-effective disruptive technologies. Early adaptation of FinTech solutions has enabled several start-ups, financial service providers and other diverse sectors to achieve an accelerated pace of growth.
Over the last several years, the Indian FinTech market has been on a growth trajectory, as is evident from an increase in both the number of FinTech companies founded and the investments they has attracted. From January 2013 to October 2018, a total of 1994 FinTech companies have been founded, turning into a hotbed of entrepreneurial activity. With a strong tech ecosystem as its backbone and a huge market base coupled with the growth of formal Financial Services (FS), the Indian FinTech market offers immense potential.
The Financial Sector Must Embrace Transparency in Artificial Intelligence to Ensure Fairness
The recent news that the FCA is partnering with the Alan Turing Institute to explore the explainability of AI in financial services is a welcome development. While financial institutions are increasingly using AI to improve efficiency and productivity, there is little transparency in how so-called neural networks make decisions, putting organisations at risk of inaccurate and even fraudulent decisions. Even worse, it is far more difficult for financial institutions to audit bad decisions by AIs than it is to audit human decisions.
In exploring how to make AI more transparent and explainable, the FCA needs to address a number of issues in reducing the threat of unaccountable AI decision-making across the financial sector
UK bank Standard Chartered completed it first supply chain finance with blockchain
Standard Chartered, London-based bank and financial services firm completes a milestone with its first joint blockchain-based supply chain financing transaction.
The financial firm announced that the institution managed to successfully complete their first run of a joint deep-tier supply chain financing transaction. The projection is as part of a partnership with China-based supply chain financing service provider Linklogis.
Back in February of this year, a memorandum of understanding signed by Standard Chartered and Linklogis. The companies agreed to collaborate on expanding the bank’s supply chain visibility, in addition to supporting sustainable growth of China’s economy and innovation.
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