The financial services industry has never been as exciting as other technology-driven genres. Things, however, changed a few years back, when blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies seized the imagination of the public, and more importantly, the imagination of entrepreneurs, investors, and the venture funding establishment. The new buzzword around town became “FinTech”, a bit sexier than its former boring name. If disruptive technology is a draw for you, then you might want to know the eight trends that researchers claim will reshape financial services, as we know them today.
This research comes to us from the G2 Crowd, whose mission is “to provide the insights business professionals need to gain confidence in their buying decisions and become more successful in their jobs.” The firm provides unbiased user reviews for its business clients and is backed by $100 million in capital, provided by its founders, IVP, Emergence Capital, Accel, and the Pritzker Group.
FinTech companies are already having a dramatic effect on the financial services industry, which has learned to embrace innovation while former FinTech disruptors transform their role into being more of a partner. The G2 Crowd analysis suggests that eight trends will be prevalent going forward. Each trend discussion in the report is also accompanied with a prediction:
- Artificial Intelligence and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) – Prediction: “Robotic Process Automation (RPA) software will be widely used in 75% of financial services institutions by the end of 2019.”
- Mobile Payments Grow Globally – Prediction: “The worldwide volume of mobile payments will grow by 60% over the next two years. Mobile payments’ growth will exceed 75% in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa during the same period.”
- Fintech App Development – Prediction: “Seventy-five percent of large banks will be actively engaged in supporting Fintech application development through open banking.”
- Fintech Companies Become the Norm – Prediction: “Fintech companies will shift from disruptors to partners in the financial services industry.”
- Smart Contracts and the Real-Estate Industry – Prediction: “Smart contracts will catalyze the evolution and improve the efficiency of the real estate industry. Twenty percent of real estate transactions will be made using smart contracts by 2020.”
- Real-Estate Projects and Blockchain – Prediction: Ten percent of commercial real-estate projects will experience blockchain-driven tokenization by 2020.”
- Regulatory Technology – Prediction: “Regulatory technology (Regtech) investment in the financial services sector will increase 500% by 2020, from $10.6 billion in 2017 to more than $53 billion.”
- Blockchain Technology and Financial Inclusion – Prediction: “Blockchain technology will open up opportunities for the un-banked or under-banked to gain financial inclusion. The number of un-banked will fall from 1.7 billion to under 1 billion by the end of 2020.
If you would like to see more details on each of these FinTech trends, click here.