Here is a timely BBC Newsnight report from David Grossman on the impact that financial technology (FinTech) is having on competition / contestability in the UK financial sector.

The UK government is trying to encourage competition, innovation and investment in FinTech and we are starting to see the emergence of challenger banks in certain sectors.

Some small businesses for example are using card readers using the Square platform. Mono has just been awarded a banking licence. Once people get hold of their own financial data following an EU directive in 2018 we can expect more companies to get involved in financial technology. Apple, Google and Facebook are likely to be big players in the financial markets in years to come.