All change"Financial services are changing beyond all recognition," observed law firm Taylor Wessing, which forecasts trends including innovation in the
Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II), payment service developments and virtual currencies. "In 2015, we predict that technology and innovation will be driven forward, with a view to generating important revenue streams and cutting risks for established and emerging businesses."
6.5%
The percentage that China's economic growth will slow to in 2015, according to CNBC's Ansuya Harjani
"As many enhancements to the present regime covering investment business and trading are built into the MiFID II package of legislation, innovation and technology will have to play a role in any firm's strategy," the firm explained.
Taylor Wessing also expects the payments industry to grow dramatically this year, with 70% of US-led
Millennial Disruption Index respondents stating they would like transactions to be completely different in five years' time.
The law firm expects the EU's Payment Services Directive "to create a single market standard across the EU and enhance trust and accessibility, while embracing technological originality".
Taylor Wessing also forecasts more partnerships between established firms and purveyors of technology, and asks whether the technology behind virtual currencies could be used in international exchange markets or even stock derivatives trading.
Lexology.com review Problems for Europe
Offering a broader assessment of the global economy, CityAM.com's John Hulsman delivers three predictions for 2015.
Firstly, Europe will remain "the sick man of the global economy", with economic stagnation, mass unemployment and deflation looming. Hulsman has little faith in EC President Jean-Claude Juncker and seems particularly discouraged by Germany's trajectory, adding: "Given its disastrous medium-term demography, highly dubious decision to raise the minimum wage to a jobs-destroying level, and lack of any serious efforts to increase domestic consumption, Berlin will remain a big part of the problem."
Hulsman's second prediction is more optimistic. As a result of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's economic reforms, Hulsman believes India will become "a huge new global player in terms of both economics and politics".
He also predicts that 2015 will be "the make or break year" for Japan and Mexico. With Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe decisively winning a recent snap election, 2015 will be all about his "third arrow" of reforms, Hulsman explains.
Meanwhile, Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto has successfully implemented structural reforms, but violent criminal gangs continue to hold the country to ransom. "This is the year that the central government simply must devise an answer to this long-festering wound," concludes Hulsman.
CityAM.com opinion piece Better growthCNBC's Ansuya Harjani too considers the outlook for the world economy. Like Hulsman, Harjani also envisages difficulties for Europe, but she is more optimistic. "The eurozone will continue to struggle with a weak labour market, but the combination of low oil prices, a weaker euro, reduced fiscal headwinds, easing sovereign debt woes, and an accommodative monetary policy will help lift growth," she explained.
Things look brighter for Japan, which Harjani predicts will rebound from its fourth recession in six years, while the US economy will continue to outperform its peers, mainly due to greater consumer spending. Economic growth in China will slow to 6.5%, predicts Harjani, but she points out that such growth rates are still "the envy of all major economies".
She also expects most emerging economies to see better growth, with emerging Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa seeing the largest increases. Like many, she forecasts that Russia will be "a weak spot" - reeling from sanctions, plunging oil prices and capital flight.
CNBC forecast
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