The FinTech Opportunity

Thomas PHILIPPON Stern School of Business, New York University ; NBER (National Bureau of Economic Research) ; CEPR (Centre for Economic Policy Research). Contact : tphilipp@stern.nyu.edu.Cet article a été préparé à l'occasion de la Conférence annuelle de la BRI (Banque des règlements internationaux) en 2016. Je tiens à remercier mes intervenants Martin Hellwig et Ross Levine, ainsi que Kim Schoenholtz, Anat Admati, Stephen Cecchetti, François Véron, Nathalie Beaudemoulin, Stefan Ingves, Raghu Rajan, Viral Acharya, PhilippSchnabl, Bruce Tuckman et Sabrina Howell pour les discussions stimulantes que nous avons eues et/ou leurs observations encourageantes au sujet des versions antérieures de cet article.

This paper assesses the potential impact of FinTech on the finance industry, focusing on financial stability and access to services. I document first that financial services remain surprisingly expensive, which explains the emergence of new entrants. I then argue that the current regulatory approach is subject to significant political economy and coordination costs, and therefore unlikely to deliver much structural change. FinTech, on the other hand, can bring deep changes but is likely to create significant regulatory challenges.