Welcome to the inaugural issue of the European FundTech Lab, designed to bring you all the latest news and views from the rapidly developing fundtech market.

Bitcoin bubbles, robo-advisers and AI-driven funds may be generating the bulk of mainstream media coverage and investor attention, at least in the retail market, but the impact of this new technology on fund managers’ operations teams will likely be more profound than for portfolio managers and product development teams.As is suggested in our Trade Talk feature (see p16), the chief technology officer of the future may become more of a curator, picking the best tools, apps and platforms available in the market rather than sweating over any in-house development or on-premise implementations.

But if  I have one wish for the development of the fundtech market, at this festive time, it is that there will be little or no talk of disruption. Disruption is Donald Trump and Brexit.  A new spirit of collaboration and partnership between incumbents and start-ups combining scale with innovation would be infinitely preferable. Happy holidays!

Nicholas Pratt is technology and operations editor at Funds Europe

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