FinTech has disrupted the financial services industry by bringing technological innovations to the well-established industry. While FinTech has created many technological innovations in the financial sector, Fintech has created new areas of fraud. FinTech such as crowd funding and peer-to-peer platforms have provided consumers with the ability to access new methods of investing and acquiring loans that do not have the same regulatory oversight as traditional methods. FinTech is creating new marketplaces for financial transactions to take place. The marketplaces that are being created through FinTech are experiencing high risks of fraud due to the lack of regulatory oversight on the rapidly evolving industry.
In order to combat the increased fraud risk as a result of FinTech, the RegTech industry has started to develop with FinTech. RegTech describes technologies that increase the efficiency of operations by providing legal and regulatory compliance. Some examples of RegTech used to combat fraud are biometrics and tokenization of transactions. With the creation of new marketplaces and faster payments, it is critical to continue to adopt regulations to FinTech in order to prevent serious financial fraud from occurring.
Reference:
https://www.taylorwessing.com/download/article-fraud-in-fintech.html
I completely agree that FinTech is opening so many doors for new areas of fraud – but I guess that’s the purpose of this course or our education. The RegTech industry is quickly catching up as concerns about security and regulatory compliance rise. There is a direct correlation between such FinTech and RegTech especially in light of the accounting and financing scandals in the past few decades. As auditors, and risk compliance professionals, I’m personally invested to see what kind of new technologies will pop up in this industry as well.