FinTech Magazine July 2019 | Page 62

CYBERSECURITY
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Littlejohn says regulation is necessary with so many changes going on in the finance world , and can make life easier for both incumbents and tech startups . “ If you look at the challenges of engineering , risk and complexity , it ’ s important – from both a regulatory and technology perspective – that we

“ THE CUSTOMER HAS THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE THE SERVICES THAT BETTER MEET THEIR NEEDS ”

— Gavin Littlejohn , Chairman , FDATA standardise the areas where it makes sense to standardise . From my own perspective as an entrepreneur as well as the companies I work with , you want to spend your time solving customerfacing problems – not problems with the plumbing .” Littlejohn says that the next big challenge finance is facing in the UK especially will be to implement PSD2 in a way that does not impede access or hinder the customer journey . “ Across the banking landscape , requirements are for financial services to sell their financial products in a compliant way , digitally ”, he outlines . For this to work , organisations must endeavour to know their customer inside out and leverage that all-important resource , data . “ The open banking and open finance movement will create a great opportunity for banks to be better at their job ,” Littlejohn argues . “ At present , from the customer perspective they suffer from relatively low access to financial advice . Any applications that help empower customers to solve their problems are only as smart as the data
JULY 2019