Centralised fintech solutions warning

MANAMA: Centralised fintech solutions are exposing people to greater and greater risks, a leading expert has warned.

Blockchain head of strategy and lead economist Xen Baynham-Herd told delegates at the 24th edition of The World Islamic Banking Conference (WIBC), the largest and longest-running gathering of Islamic banking and finance leaders in the world, that embracing new technologies like blockchain is imperative in the changing face of financial services due to the advent of digitisation.

“I believe that in the future, money will enable a huge explosion in innovation, and people who are currently unbanked and under-served by the judicial financial industry will be able to utilise some of these benefits,” he said.

“It is not surprising that on our platform we see some of the largest adoptions and growth in developing countries, because here financial inclusion is going to be driven by technology leap-frogging, existing financial infrastructure and going to things such as mobile-first technology, as individuals become increasingly mobile-savvy, connected and comfortable with digital technology.”

According to him, using smartphones people will soon be able to store, transact and secure their digital assets for identity and their personal data all at one place, probably on their phone.

“The next wave of digital actors are not people but machines. The Internet of things already consists of over one billion connected devices and in the years ahead this is going to grow to hundreds of billions.”

Also in attendance at the 24th WIBC was CBX board member and co-founder Prince Saud bin Khalid Al Saud who too expressed his views on the growing need for financial institutions to embrace change due to disruption.

“Nowadays, fintech is synonymous with the word ‘disruptive’ and it is paving the way for new innovative solutions, but we must understand that disruption is not about adaptability it’s about embracing change.”

Rounding off the global conversation on FinTech at the conference was UK-based Elipses’ Lawrence Wintermeyer, also its co-founder and principal, who spoke on the future of Islamic fintech and highlighted the core opportunities and challenges that lay ahead.

An initiative of Middle East Global Advisors, the three-day long forum brought to the fore and topical issues surrounding the Islamic banking and finance landscape and spurred a series of discussions gravitating around its core theme of “Drivers of Economic Growth & Risks: Policymakers & Regulators”, a theme that resonated with the conference’s steady vision to serve as a definitive check point for the global Islamic finance and banking industry going forward.

Source: http://www.gdnonline.com/Details/303721/Centralised-fintech-solutions-warning