Next up is yet another regulatory change coming into force this week: MiFID II or, The Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II, which aims to emphasise and highlight the importance of transparency of transactions and fees. They also discuss Dave Birch's piece for WIRED on Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Baitu, Alibaba and Tencent replacing big banks in the future - the team agree but are we unfairly assuming that big banks themselves will never change or evolve? Let us know if you agree. "Banks didn't make the most of data while they had it" - Andra Soneaĭavid highlights the huge opportunities for fintechs as a result of Open Banking - Starling, Monzo and Revolut made a strong start last year but now it must be about to snowball. Andra points out that banks didn't make the most of the data they had available to them while they had it, so can fintechs and tech companies now make better use of it as a result of Open Banking? Do customers have to know about it to feel the benefits? Simon and Benedict debate. They also debate how much of a problem is that 92% of customers haven't heard of Open Banking, according to a Which? survey. The team also discuss the impact of the big banks being given an extension to meet the requirements for open banking, leading Benedict to question that if everyone can't make the deadline, does the deadline even exist? While this is almost certainly clickbait, in David Brear's eyes it is a "refreshing perspective" from a big bank boss, to view the changes in this way. In the first of many Open Banking related stories, we began with a hard hitting headline from the BBC stating that open banking "threatens the survival of traditional banks". In what could be viewed as a consolation prize, Ant Financial said it paid MoneyGram a $30 million termination fee for the deal’s collapse. MoneyGram's shares fell 8.5 percent in after-market trading after the deal was called off. The Donald had previously vowed to take a harder line on Chinese trade deals. This becomes the most high profile Chinese deal to be shut down whilst Trump has been in office. Starting off with the big news Stateside, Ant Financial's MoneyGram takeover was abandoned as the US authorities refused to back the deal due to concerns over national security and the safety of data used to identify US citizens.