World Economic Forum @LBS: The Evolving Role of Fintech

Jesse McWaters

Project Lead, Disruptive Innovation in Financial Services

World Economic Forum

R. Jesse McWaters leads the World Economic Forum’s exploration of fintech and financial innovation. His work focuses on bringing together senior financial services executives, leading fintech players, and global regulators to understand how new technologies and innovative new entrants are transforming the competitive dynamics of the global financial ecosystem.

He is the lead author of the World Economic Forum’s groundbreaking “Future of Financial Services” report which charted a taxonomy of fintech innovation, and their more recent publication “Beyond Fintech” which explores the potential risks large technology firms pose to incumbent financial institutions. He has also lead the Forum’s work exploring the potential impacts of blockchain (“The Future of Financial Infrastructure”) and digital identity (“A Blueprint for Digital Identity”) on the financial system.

Jesse is a frequent speaker on financial innovation. In addition to presentations at numerous conferences and to the boards and executive committees of leading financial institutions he has shared his insights  with leading policy-makers including the Financial Stability Board, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, The Federal Reserve Board, The Peoples Bank of China, The European Parliament, and the UK Financial Conduct Authority.

Prior to his current role, Jesse worked as a financial services consultant with Deloitte and served as Director of Insights for Deloitte’s Future of Canada Institute, an organization dedicated to enhancing Canada’s productivity, competitiveness and innovative capabilities. In this capacity Jesse co-authored numerous publications including: “The future of productivity - A wake-up call for Canadian companies” and “Passport to growth - How international arrivals stimulate Canadian exports”.