This article assesses the opportunities and challenges for different categories of FinTechs in the SAARC and ASEAN regions. We consider the global financial inclusion data released by the World Bank and map the responses to gain insights into the opportunities and challenges for FinTechs in the respective regions. We develop a new index, termed the FinTech Opportunity Index (FOI), to conceptualise the opportunities and barriers based on individual savings, borrowings, purchasing behaviour, and payment preferences. We note that FinTech services have potential opportunities for expansion in the ASEAN regions but less so in the SAARC regions. The need for different types of FinTech services varies between regions. Services such as crowdfunding, neobanks, and InsurTech have potential in the ASEAN regions, especially with the positive attitude towards entrepreneurship and asset investments. In the SAARC regions, InsurTechs linked to health care has potential along with LendTechs and neobanks. We further note that males, and the young are more likely adopters of FinTechs in both regions. The analysis suggests the need for innovative promotions and education to motivate the more sceptical, especially women and the elderly population, to adopt FinTech services.

The Open Banking model is a data sharing model emerging in financial services sector that involves technological and regulatory innovations designed to facilitate access to banking records by third party providers such as payment service providers. The model is predicted to disrupt financial services and encourage a wave of new third-party providers offering innovative services that will change the relationship between customers and banks. This article juxtaposes the Open Banking model against models for electronic health records. Providers that could supply innovative third party services with health record data if an Open Banking model were adopted in the health care industry are advanced.

Published empirical research (McInnes 2020) proves licensing financial advisers through multiple profit-driven Australian Financial Services licensees contributes to conflicts of interest by association. Government’s response is to regulate advisers by adopting a single disciplinary body (Frydenberg & Hume 2019) to professionalise advisers like established professions. This paper supports Government’s move to implement this body (Taylor 2020c; Maddock 2020), albeit delayed by COVID-19 (Taylor 2020a), by using the evidence published in a Routledge book (McInnes 2020). It aims to motivate advisers to work with policymakers to reshape financial advice into a true, accredited profession to address the problem of conflicted association, to make advice accessible (Marsh & Phillips 2019) and conflict free, while also dismantling costly compliance legislation (Smith & Sharpe 2020).

<!----> <!----> In summary, integrating agency, legislation, Suchman’s legitimacy framework and theory of professions proved a valuable contribution to examine the legitimacy [or what was found to be the illegitimacy] of the licensee-authorised representative licensing model. Predominantly, the statutory best interest duty, misalignment of adviser–clients’ interests and licensee commercial interests compromising best interest duty delegitimised current adviser licensing. Clearly, licensing advisers via third-party commercially oriented product-biased licensees does not display regulative, consequential moral, procedural moral, structural moral, personal moral and culture-cognitive legitimacy. Inevitably, a single new body with updated rules, norms and scripts for individual professional licensing should supersede the delegitimised licensing ASIC licensees. FASEA or the new Hayne-recommended statutory disciplinary body is the most logical solution for this challenging task. Yet before launching into any new regime, further research must address the perceived challenges. Additionally, all stakeholders should get involved to contribute to shaping the future adviser licensing policy in Australia. Individual licensing is a solution to professionalise this emerging profession to operate with the same standards and ethics as other professions. Hence, not only aiming to restore trust and confidence in advisers, but to protect the public, while encouraging new entrants into financial planning careers. <!----> <!---->

Data sharing between financial services organisations has led to a proliferation of third party data service providers that are not parties to transactions but facilitate interactions between them by analysing, manipulating or storing data related to transactions. This has led to widespread legal, technological and sociocultural changes in that sector broadly described as Open-Banking initiatives. Third party service providers have not emerged in the healthcare sector in the same way. This study reports preliminary results of a Delphi study comprising healthcare and financial experts to explore the extent to which third party providers in healthcare is beneficial and feasible. Ensuring the quality of data service provided by third parties was seen to be a critical success factor. A causal loop model was used to describe the inter-dependent factors underpinning this factor. Further investigations to augment the model with Consumer Data Rights and validate empirically are underway.

Causal loop diagrams (CLD) that emerged from systems thinking disciplines have been used to simulate complex inter-dependencies between causal factors in diverse phenomena. This paper highlights a process for generating a casual loop diagrams to represent the quality of electronic health record (EHR) ecosystem in a medical context. The quality inherent in the use of electronic health records for specific clinical purposes is taken to depend on factors including data integrity, reliability, relevance, timeliness and completeness. By improving the electronic health record ecosystem quality, health care providers can enhance their data sharing practices, and personalised patient care, while reducing the probabilities of medical errors. Ultimately the CLD can be used to run multiple simulations for several clinical case scenarios to understand the impact of various case phenomena on the quality of the electronic health record ecosystem.