TECHNOLOGY
Hali Khan ( HK ) VP EMEA ,
Zafin
Q . As finance becomes increasingly digitalised , what regulatory challenges will emerge for fintechs ? SN : We have to think about this over the lifecycle of a tech startup . When they initially mobilise , startups are broadly compliant because they ' re small , the operations are just coming together , and they don ' t have many pieces of regulation to comply with .
“ I OFTEN SEE A DISCONNECT BETWEEN [ FINTECH ’ S ] INVESTMENT FOCUS ON MARKET GROWTH VERSUS COMPLIANCE ”
SUCHITRA NAIR PARTNER , DELOITTE EMEA CENTRE FOR REGULATORY STRATEGY
Three to five years down the line , when they ' ve started building their market share or their balance sheet , suddenly fintechs enter a broader spectrum of regulation . I often see a disconnect between their investment focus on market growth versus compliance , and so this is where the regulatory challenges begin to emerge .
HK : As more financial institutions continue to see the value of partnering with a fintech , expect to see regulators scrutinise operational resilience , especially given the accelerated consumption of digital services due to COVID-19 . In particular , look out for more regulatory requirements for some of the most common services , such as realtime transaction monitoring and customer identification .
Q . How can fintechs remain compliant across separate geographies with their own rules on governance ?
BR : The thing about fintech is that it ' s instantly global . Finance was traditionally about growing businesses gradually by