The last two years have witnessed an international obsession with the new twin stars of financial services—Big Data and FinTech. Initially, new FinTech innovations were labeled “disruptive” and the emergence of growing numbers of FinTech players was viewed as a threat to the established players. However, the narrative framework surrounding FinTech and Big Data has shifted from combative to complementary. Big Data is being reduced into different components and is being relabeled into “smart data” and “actionable data.” The challenges of data acquisition and the limitations around Big Data—use limitations in advanced countries with complex regulatory frameworks governing data collection, storage, use and re-use, are increasingly considered and have brought a more pragmatic tone to the discussion about impacts from Big Data. Similarly with FinTech. The relationship between FinTech and the traditional financial services sector is now viewed as complementary in the parlance of economics—and is more likely to be characterized now by terms such as collaboration, symbiosis, and synergy than by disruption. Future progress within the financial services sector, it now seems, critically depends upon the ability of banks and lenders to find creative ways to productively engage with innovative FinTechs who need the experience, skills, and wherewithal of traditional players to scale and thrive—maybe even survive.
