With the rising temperatures of summer, there’s no cooling down in the headlines as fintech remains hot. From the discussion that fintech should shift focus on infrastructure, to “robo” in finance and the human questions that accompany its evolution, to cybersecurity and regtech, here are our favorite fintech headlines from June 2017:
- June 28
Too many fintech investments are going to the interface of consumer products instead of actually fixing the financial system. However, infrastructure startups might be able to re-energize consumer fintech. This Tearsheet article makes a good argument for the pivoting of fintech to focus on back end processes instead of front-end apps.
In humorous fashion, author Simon Dumenco tells the story of when a bank employee aggressively tried to steer him away from interacting with a human service employee, pushing him to use the ATM. This AdAge opinion article points out how consumer-facing corporations need to think now about what their rush to automation means for their brands and their relationships with customers.

As we recently Tweeted: It’s not about to #robo, or not to robo — it’s about how you robo.
- June 25
Emerging technologies, such as automated, or “robo,” advisers are providing important investment services to investors who have limited assets to manage, but the benefits were not without serious risks, and the new SEC Chairman, Jay Clayton, gets some advice in this FinTekNews article.
- June 22
Founder & CEO Bikram Singh of EZOPS talks about using AI-fueled services to optimize, streamline, and support the middle and back office operations where up to 15 percent of a financial institution’s staff focused on trading is conducting repetitive, mundane tasks to reconcile data. In this Forbes article, he explains that there is a better way.
- June 2
Attacks against financial institutions are on the rise, with the emergence of a handful of sophisticated cyber crime groups going after financial institutions. Although crypto ransomware is becoming a common choice for cyber criminals, there is still a significant amount of malware targeting financial organisations and their customers, Symantec has warned. ComputerWeekly covers this timely topic.