Last week, C Minds was invited to give a workshop on open banking to 90 participants, most of them FinTechs, in MassChallenge’s and Fiinlab’s FinTech Sprint, a 2-day event designed for experts, entrepreneurs and financial services enthusiasts to learn about the future of FinTech.
Asked to describe open banking, participants let show the Mexican industry’s enthusiasm, equating the standard to words such as “disruptive”. Many pointed to the opportunities for increased collaboration among the sector and mentioned consumers’ empowerment as a key benefit.
Over the course of an hour, participants in the workshop learnt about Open Banking in the context of the Data Revolution, with insights into developments abroad and in Mexico, before settling into small groups to reflect on the different opportunities and challenges posed by the new standard to be implemented in Mexico by April 2020.
While challenges included mentions of the technical and financial resources needed by FinTechs to adopt the Standard, participants also mentioned the many opportunities ahead, such as a better environment for competition, the possibility to create new disruptive business models and an opening for accelerating financial inclusion.
The workshop ended with a series of recommended steps FinTechs can start taking now to ensure they are optimally positioned to reap the many benefits brought about by open banking.
C Minds is dedicated to pushing the conversation further in terms of finance innovation and defining, together with the ecosystem, how Mexico can ensure open banking’s disruptive potential is democratized across the country.
