An exciting panel took place recently in a European congress. It featured three experts in state-of-the-art financial services: Douwe Lyklama from Innopay; Saska Devolder, Swift’s officer in charge of Western and Central Europe; Marjam Delatine from Ripple’s European office. They discussed the outlook for the evolution in the European financial services markets, and we will share with you the highlights.

Swift

The panel opened with the representative of Ripple‘s direct competitor’s representative (in a sense) Mrs. Devolder’s first intervention in which she explained that while the financial services of the world are changing quickly everywhere, they’re doing so more rapidly in Europe because the Eurozone’s Central Bank (ECB) is pressing the changes and it has placed deadlines that every member must meet.

ECB is pushing for the market to be more competitive so that the services offered by the system are better, cheaper, and more reliable. Also, in Europe, there is the issue of every user’s “right to be forgotten,” which also applies to banks and financial institutions.

The ECB also worked hard to develop and deploy a Pan-European payments system which went online last November. Besides increased competition, ECB’s regulatory drive is focused on bringing new services to the public and increasing liquidity. So a lot is going on at the same time, which makes the European theatre the most advanced in the world when it comes to financial modernization.

Innopay

Then it was Mr. Lyklama’s turn who explained that the user or an authorized representative must consent all access to customer’s data. He also talked about open banking systems and how they’re gaining traction everywhere in the world.

The open banking implementation in Europe is complicated because there are five different standards to choose from. That’s holding the EU back. In the UK, for instance, there was a single standard from the beginning, and that advantage alone has enabled the country to outdo Europe (and the rest of the world) when it comes to open banking systems.

Ripple

Next, it was Mrs. Delatinne turn. As expected, she talked about open banking and blockchain technology. The idea in open banking is for all payments operations to be fully digital. If that idea is going to catch in the minds of users, then they will have to trust the system. And blockchain technology is the best trust broker available.

She went on to explain that Ripple‘s priority is to facilitate interoperability among different financial networks. That’s how it can and will help the European systems to meet the ECB’s deadlines, come up with new services, and take good care of customers.

So Europe is way more advanced than the rest of the world when it comes to the adoption of new financial technologies, especially the UK. That means that many new services will start there and then, as the banks and financial institutions learn how consumers react to the new ideas, they will expand to the rest of the world. The prominent role that European banks play everywhere in the world, except for Wall Street will surely expedite that process.

New exciting things are coming to the world in terms of financial services, the actual ownership of your wealth, and freedom. It seems that they will start in Europe, and blockchain technology and crypto currencies will be at the heart of everything. And of course, Ripple might benefit the most.

Disclaimer: Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.