The Rise of RegTech and Its Impact on The Future of Financial Services

When it comes to reporting, compliance and regulation, the global financial crisis of 2008 was a game-changer. Over the last decade, you may have become aware of an evolution in Financial Technology (FinTech) that has resulted in tech for financial regulation or Regulatory Technology (RegTech).

In a December 6, 2018, MarketsandMarkets report, it was estimated that the RegTech market today could expand to $12.3 billion by 2023. By innovating common regulatory problems, RegTech makes use of developments like Blockchain technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning and Big Data.

However, as evolution continues in the solutions found within RegTech, the regulatory landscape may have to surmount many obstacles in order to keep pace with the ensuing disruption.

What might the future hold and how could RegTech impact your overall digital strategy?

Regulations are skyrocketing

A massive deployment of new regulation has emerged as a result of the global financial crisis, with over 50,000 new regulations since the catastrophe. To put things into perspective, that's one new regulatory alert every seven minutes!

This development has taken a toll on the financial service industry, with banks alone spending hundreds of billions of dollars annually.

The Evolution of the Digital Wallet - A Reflection on its Past and What Might Lie Ahead

It has been described as the future of payments. The digital wallet (commonly known as the e-wallet) essentially lets users store all their cards, bank accounts and financial necessities in a virtual system. 

How did e-wallet make its way into our lives?

How does it remain such a prominent part of the digitization and digital transformation happening in this era and what’s in store for its future?

What is a digital wallet?

In a nutshell, the digital wallet works a lot like your physical wallet, only it’s an electronic version of the same concept. It lets people store their money and make payments all from the comfort of their homes (or wherever they are for that matter). It’s a virtual mobile bank at your fingertips. Digital wallets these days are also reinforced with security measures, so your financial information can be kept safe during transactions.

This remarkable innovation provides us with accessibility and convenience, offering loads of features all from our smartphones. There are various types of e-wallets available, each with their own unique sets of features.

Mysterious beginnings

For all the attention given to the digital wallet, its origins are pretty murky. The very first instance of an e-wallet can't exactly be pinned down. What’s known is that the idea had been in circulation since the late ‘90s, with discussions about a concept made up of virtual payment systems and capabilities for storing cash. However, very few people were using it at the time.

In fact, several companies and individuals tried to come up with early versions of the e-wallet but nothing much came out of it. Even eBay launched a series of early e-payment programs but these failed to take off due to poor publicity. Ultimately, the timing just wasn't right.

E-wallets took time to conceptualize

The first series of e-wallets that was developed was basically considered a failure and is now known as the first generation. The second-generation garnered a little more traction, with even MasterCard and Visa coming on board. However, there just wasn't enough focus on simplification and integration of solutions was practically nonexistent.