Topic: Fintech

The financial services sector is becoming increasingly reliant on cloud service providers (CSPs) to fulfil its growing data processing and storage needs. Financial services providers in the United States have reportedly had the highest levels of adoption, operating 54 percent of their workloads in the cloud; and according to the European Central Bank, banks spent 13.5 percent more on cloud outsourcing in 2024 than in 2023.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) is currently consulting on its draft guidelines on the sound management of third party risk (Draft Guidelines), which are intended to replace the 2019 guidelines on outsourcing arrangements (2019 Guidelines).

Financial regulators globally emphasise the importance of financial entities being operationally resilient, which includes the ability to manage and recover from disruptions caused by their service providers. The topic receives significant attention in the financial services sector because the sector is regulated, with the aim of promoting financial system stability.

Increased regulatory burdens on asset management businesses have resulted in additional cost pressures. However, regulation has also required more pricing transparency, which has led to an increasingly competitive market, with investors demanding either ultra-low cost or increasingly bespoke investment solutions.

The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) published its final guidance on monitoring workers on 3 October 2023 (the Guidance).

Once relegated to the fringe of the crypto/FinTech communities, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are suddenly mainstream, appearing in new and increasingly commercial use cases, such as financial services, automotive industry applications, electronic gaming, sport highlights, music albums, film, art, fashion and digital branding.

On 15 September 2022, the European Commission published its proposal for a new Regulation which sets out cybersecurity related requirements for products with “digital elements”, known as the proposed Cyber Resilience Act (the CRA).

Global organisations advocating to reduce their carbon impact face a unique dilemma when they are also engaging in the crypto space, due to the energy consumed in some blockchain networks.