Bank regulatory bodies need to coordinate their strategies for dealing with emerging financial technology at a global level, says a new report from International Organization of Securities Commissions (Iosco). The Iosco Research Report on Financial Technology highlights the growing intersection between fintech and securities markets across a number of critical business areas, including financing platforms, robo-advisory services, innovations in bond trading and applications of distributed ledger tech.

The observation of key trends — such as the greater availability of data, exponential growth in computing power allowing the analysis of ever larger data sets, broader access to and the decreasing cost of goods and services, increasing disintermediation and re-intermediation, and demographic and generational changes — all point towards a crossroads of significant technology-driven change in the offering of financial services,” indicated the report. “Fintech applications are developing at an increasingly faster pace, creating new opportunities to achieve better outcomes for investors. At the same time, as with any change, new risks and vulnerabilities may arise.