If only Regulators were Superman

We are living in a “hyper innovative” time.

We were taught not to talk to strangers however on Facebook people self post most personal information openly for the world to see.

How should the regulator now deal with Privacy in these circumstances?

Driving License required rigorous testing and regular renewal for safety of the driver as well as others on the road. Now Google is testing driverless car.

How should the regulator deal with Safety of people on the roads?

Kites flying in the backdrop of blue skies were the usual norms but now Amazon is using programmed / remote controlled Drones delivering goods to consumers.

How should Aviation Authority regulate the Drones flying around and potential dangers emerging from its use?

The other extreme is that the traditional regulated industry like Banking and Automobile have paid Billions if not Trillions dollars of fine on same issues again and again over last decade across geographies.

Regulators are being stretched at extremes. Regulated industries has kept the regulators busy with keeping the players compliant and on the other end by the “hyper innovative” companies.

I am founder of Monexo, a Peer-to-Peer(P2P) lending marketplace in Hong Kong, a disruption to traditional lending practice.

In less than a decade this industry has grown, adopted by consumers as well as hailed as disruptive innovation in USA, UK, China and many others.

Zopa, began its journey as the 1st P2P lending marketplace in UK in 2005 and many more followed but it was only in 2013 FCA came out with a roadmap to regulate P2P lending in UK.

P2P lending in China is growing rapidly. As part of evolution of this industry in China it is attracting good and bad organizations. Good organizations are the one who are self-regulating, building processes, controls and adopting practices that will win customer confidence and adoption.

Don’t we all wish Regulators were Superman and could be ahead of innovators in this ‘hyper innovations’ time.

Till then at Monexo – Self Regulation, Adopting Best Global Practices, Learning from the failed / bad organizations and using my learning from 20 years of experience with Global Consumer Bank at Citi.