As recently as thirty years ago, Americans lived in a financial world that today seems distant. Investment and borrowing choices were meager: virtually all transactions were conducted in cash or by check. The financial services industry was heavily regulated, as an outgrowth of the Depression, while an elaborate safety net was constructed to prevent a repeat of that dismal episode in American history. Today, consumers and businesses have a dizzying array of choices about where to invest and borrow. Plastic credit cards and electronic transfers increasingly are replacing cash and checks. Much regulation has been dismantled, although the industry remains fragmented by rules that continue to separate banks from other enterprises. Meanwhile, finance has gone global and increasingly high-tech. This book, originally prepared as a report to Congress by the Treasury Department, outlines a framework for setting policy toward the financial services industry in the coming decades. The authors, who worked closely with senior Treasury officials in developing their recommendations, identify three core principles that lie at the heart of that framework: an enhanced role for competition; a shift in emphasis from preventing failures of financial institutions at all cost toward containing the damage of any failures that inevitably occur in a competitive market; and a greater reliance on more targeted interventions to achieve policy goals rather than broad measures, such as flat prohibitions on certain activities.

This book explores the future of the financial services industry, giving readers an idea of the kinds of institutions and services that will survive in the early twenty-first century. An informative and provocative exploration of the future of the financial services industry. Focuses on likely changes in the near future, such as greater use of the Internet for banking transactions and the increasing globalization of financial services. Points to the probable disappearance of the insurance sector as a separate industry. Describes changing conditions in key financial centres, especially the US, the UK, Germany, Japan and Switzerland.

FinTech and the Remaking of Financial Institutions explores the transformative potential of new entrants and innovations on business models. In its survey and analysis of FinTech, the book addresses current and future states of money and banking. It provides broad contexts for understanding financial services, products, technology, regulations and social considerations. The book shows how FinTech has evolved and will drive the future of financial services, while other FinTech books concentrate on particular solutions and adopt perspectives of individual users, companies and investors. It sheds new light on disruption, innovation and opportunity by placing the financial technology revolution in larger contexts. Presents case studies that depict the problems, solutions and opportunities associated with FinTech Provides global coverage of FinTech ventures and regulatory guidelines Analyzes FinTech’s social aspects and its potential for spreading to new areas in banking Sheds new light on disruption, innovation and opportunity by placing the financial technology revolution in larger contexts