CaixaBank has teamed up with Silicon Valley-based innovation platform Plug and Play on a Spanish fintech startup programme.

Go to wherever you listen to your podcasts. Type in “artificial intelligence.” Fall down the rabbit hole.

There’s a ton of hype around AI—some of it sensationalist, some of it dark, and some of it downright terrifying.

But, while podcasters, software creators, journalists, meme-creators, etc., postulate on the potential ramifications—robot takeovers and the like—we hardly ever stop to talk about what a future with AI could look like on a more reasonable scale.

The future of banking could be closer than we think. As the industry continues to build the bridges between the financial services of today and the financial services of tomorrow, the pockets of innovation coming to the fore are impressive. From AI powered credit applications[i] to ATMs offering loan applications within five years, outputs from research and innovation hubs, alongside a wider recognition that more aggressive change is essential, are setting the foundations for a new era of banking.

Local high school students are getting a free education in how to manage their money. Andigo Credit Union is working with Banzai, a national award-winning financial literacy program, to make curriculum available to seven Cook and DuPage County high schools, completely free.

Business information provider IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO) has recruited pricing and risk management specialist, Mark Findlay, as the Global Head of its Financial Risk Analytics business. Based in London, Findlay will report to Chief Technology Officer and Chief Data Scientist, Yaacov Mutnikas, and will lead the business.

The Financial Data Exchange (FDX) welcomed 25 new members between August 1 and December 31, 2019, bringing the total membership to 82 organizations that have committed to collectively transitioning to a modern, transparent and secure data sharing approach. Since its launch in October 2018, FDX has more than tripled its membership.

Old Mission Holdings (“Old Mission”), a global, multi-asset class market-making firm, today announced that the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (FINRA) has approved a brokerage license modification for its Old Mission Markets subsidiary. The change will enable Old Mission Markets to begin offering trading services directly to buy-side institutions and ETF issuers later this year, complementing the firm’s existing market-making business conducted through the Old Mission Capital broker-dealer.

Not many things in life are certain, but in the financial services industry it’s obvious to all participants that regulators are continually tightening the national and international governance, risk and compliance requirements. The ultimate aim for firms in 2020 is to stay one step ahead of the evolving regulatory regimes. In addition, Brexit now looks set to further shake up the regulatory mix and compliance regulations for those in, or trading with, the United Kingdom.

Regulatory compliance cost banks US$100 billion in 2016

Form3, the leading cloud-native, payment technology provider have announced that they will provide direct access to the SEPA Instant payment scheme for Ebury. This will be the first solution in Europe that allows direct scheme access for non-banks like FinTech’s and regulated financial institutions, while using Barclays as their liquidity provider.