22 Sep 2017

What do Fintech and climate change have in common?

More than you might think, according to Mark Whitcroft, Founding Partner of Illuminate Financial, speaking at TradeTech FX in Barcelona.

As we know, there’s nothing new about fintech. At TradeTech FX, Mark highlighted three key trends in FX trading related to new financial technologies:

  1. The growing shift to the cloud, especially in the payments sector

  2. Trading platforms being rewritten in HTML5

  3. Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), also known as blockchain

It was clear that both the fintech companies and the more established FX trading community need to focus on technologies which enable rather than disrupt the industry in order to truly succeed.

Cloud is a massive driver – and is here to stay

Just like climate change, the rate of growth of fintech over the past few years has skyrocketed, with more than $40 billion in funding between 2011-2015.

However, as there is arguably a gap of acknowledgement between some politicians and the onset of climate change, there is also a gap between the promises of the future and the technology available today.

Mark ended with a powerful image of the shrinking polar ice caps and the polar bear, one of nature’s most powerful predators.

As with climate change, ignoring new financial technologies could have serious consequences for the industry.

Mark concluded, “There will be winners and losers in this space. Ignoring is not an option.”

Staying on top of new industry and technology developments is core to our strategy at BSO and ensures our customers are never lagging behind.

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The company was founded in 2004 and serves the world’s largest financial institutions. BSO is a global pioneering infrastructure and connectivity provider, helping over 600 data-intensive businesses across diverse markets, including financial services, technology, energy, e-commerce, media and others. BSO owns and provides mission-critical infrastructure, including network connectivity, cloud solutions, managed services and hosting, that are specific and dedicated to each customer served.

The company’s network comprises 240+ PoPs across 33 markets, 50+ cloud on-ramps, is integrated with all major public cloud providers and connects to 75+ on-net internet exchanges and 30+ stock exchanges. The team of experts works closely with customers in order to create solutions that meet the detailed and specific needs of their business, providing the latency, resilience and security they need regardless of location.

BSO is headquartered in Ireland, and has 11 offices across the globe, including London, New York, Paris, Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore. Access our website and find out more information: www.bso.co