4 Innovation Innovation is not framed only in the individual context of enterprises. In the 1960’s in the financial sector and 1970’s, with the introduction of credit cards, Visa changed the rules of play for the whole ecosystem, and success of its implementation depended on the generation cannot be fully understood of coordinated mechanisms. Dee Hock, Visa’s first CEO, conceived and executed a without the strong vision similar to that of many FinTech entrepreneurs nowadays: to use technology to radically enhance the banking experience across the industry. interdependence among the players forming Seeing the financial industry as an ecosystem enables challenges to be transformed into opportunities to improve the financial industry as a whole, by using technologi- an ecosystem. cal innovation. For example, the challenge of falling behind in financial inclusion is being addressed by some FinTechs. Widening the offer of more customized products and giving access to financial services, cutting transactional costs and entry barriers for a population segment that has been excluded, consequently increases the total size of the market participating in financial activities. Likewise, the challenge of creating a better banking experience is being addressed by financial institutions that are opening their technological infrastructure and databases through APIs; enabling potential entrepreneurs to use their creativity to design new business models. Converting the financial entities into platforms for others may develop technology-based products and services, which is also known as Open Banking. A TWO-WAY PATH 8