With open banking, is technology creating a decentralized future of banking? Smartphone apps like Mint and Personal Capital paved the way for customers to access the entirety of their financial data in one place, but now, major banks are beginning to enter the open banking game. What are the repercussions for traditional banking institutions? What are the benefits and risks for consumers? And is this the beginning of the end of brick and mortar bank branches?
 

Featured Guests

Charlie Lai, EVP/CIO, Fairwinds Credit Union
Sumit Jha, Co-director, UCF Master of Science in FinTech
Christo Pirinsky, Co-director, UCF Master of Science in FinTech

Episode Highlights

1:55 - Panelist Introductions
2:55 - What is Open Banking?
9:05 - The current state of Open Banking
19:30 - Is this the end of traditional banking?
25:33 - Questions from the audience

What is the single most important problem being solved by open banking and who's problem is it?
Will open banking create a larger cybersecurity threat, or reduce the risk?
Is ransomware a concern?
Why should I hand over my personal data to these FinTech companies without any financial incentive?

33:05 - The biggest threat to Open Banking
36:05 - Dean Jarley's final thoughts

 
Episode Transcription
 

Paul Jarley:                         George Jetson, a man created in the 1960s to depict what life would be like in 2060. He lives in a city in the clouds. He drives a flying car that neatly folds up into a briefcase that he can carry into work. When he drops his kids off at school, he releases them in a pod that gently guides them to their destination. But when Jane, his wife, wants to go shopping, he tries to give her some cash. She takes his whole wallet. Cash, really? It's 2065 and George is still using cash. Maybe it's because nobody thought banks would innovate, or maybe it's just George's way of trying to control Jane's spending. Either way, it seems woefully out of date. George, my friend, do we have some stuff solutions for you. This show is all about separating hype from fundamental change. I'm Paul Jarley, Dean of the College of Business here at UCF. I've got lots of questions. To get answers, I'm talking to people with interesting insights into the future of business. Have you ever wondered, is this really a thing? On to our show.

Paul Jarley:                         Today's podcast come straight from our Dean's Advisory Board meeting where we spent the afternoon talking about FinTech. The College of Business has partnered with the College of Engineering and Computer Science to launch a master's program in financial technology. Many of our board members have a keen interest in this topic. So we brought together a panel to talk about one of the many innovations in this sector, open banking. Today we're going to talk a little bit about a subject that I don't know very much about. I stumbled upon this a few weeks ago, which is often how we come up with ideas for the podcast, called open banking. And I have three people here who are going to help us understand what open banking is and whether or not it's going to be a thing going forward. So I'm going to ask each of our panelists to start off just by introducing themselves, and I'll start with Christo. Christo?

Christo Pirinsky:               My name is Christo Pirinsky and I am a professor at the finance department, and I'm also the co-director of the FinTech program that we just launched.

Paul Jarley:                         Sumit?

Sumit Jha:                           Yeah, I'm Sumit Jha. I am professor in the computer science department, and co-director of the FinTech program from computer science,