Financial Technology - an Important Business Trend in Global Economies

For Colin Robertson, a banking executive at Northern Trust in Chicago, work is almost as enjoyable as play. Colin Robertson carries over his work for clients in Chicago and beyond to his favorite after-hours entertainment – pursuing knowledge about business and financial trends relevant to clients and economies inside and outside the United States.

On March 9, 2017, the US Federal Trade Commission held the third in its series of three public forums on financial technology at the University of California, Berkeley. The forum, Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain, focused on the consumer implications of these developing technologies and examined how they may be used to serve and protect consumers.

In November 2016, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) held a financial technology public forum at its Washington, DC, headquarters. The SEC says that the forum was designed to foster collaboration among regulators, entrepreneurs, and industry experts, and to evaluate how government regulations can best address innovations in the financial services industry.

The World Economic Forum follows this trend at the global level. The nonprofit organization, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, recently identified the world’s financial technology hubs as demonstrated by market size, investment, and staffing. The United Kingdom tops the list, followed by California, New York, Singapore, Germany, Australia, and Hong Kong.