While 2021 has increasingly dominated digital transformation in terms of financial aspects, 2022 is expected to be bigger. That is why we need to keep an eye on the latest updates and news of what may come in the future. Below we will take a look at the Top 5 Fintech trends that some of our CFTE Experts have identified and researched upon:
1. Digital Decentralised Trend of Cryptocurrency & Open Finance from Ronit Ghose
Ronit Ghose is an Oxford History Graduate who is currently working as the Global Head Banking, Fintech & Digital Assets of Citibank Global Insights, Advisory Board Member of Global Impact FinTech Forum, Launch Africa, Remotexec and CFTE.
The amount of capital that has gone to fintech venture capital is way bigger than in previous years. It has doubled every year reaching a total worth of $120B in the past 9 months. The number of fintech unicorns has also doubled yearly with 2021 being the highest number of new startups, leading it to become a real momentum for fintech. China and USA mostly developed Fintech but now it has become a global phenomenon from startups in Latin America to Asia.
We are in the early stages of Crypto and digital assets as the value of crypto is on a complete rise. The economy is paving a path for decentralization, new development of the trend in crypto, and open finance. Now we are having the growth of embedded finance also known as the “platformification” of financial services to do payments and open up financial services using API for new customer expectations and regulations to open a new economy for the world.
2. The New Fintech Investments Trend for Generation-Z from Janos Barberis
Janos Barberis is the Co-Founder of SuperCharger Ventures, Advisor of Tgate, Editor-In-Chief of EdTech Book and Academic Board at CFTE.
Being systematic is a good start for the new unicorn institutions as you are an established company and you can borrow more money at a lower interest. For the past 2 years, the world is moving towards a sustainable goal and Generation Z is investing in alignment with their values and ethics. Fintech products from payment to investments have that NSG element embedded into them, so the more money goes into, a faster sustainable world would happen. An example is the Buy-now and PayLater being the new credit shows some Fintech companies do not need to have deep business model innovations to make a company valuable. This new generation, virtual scarcity is the same as physical scarcity such as NFT’s and tokens, Facebook renames as META is a good illustration that the big next turn on the market is going to be the virtual world.
3. With Light Fintech, Comes the Rise of the Dark Fintech Era from Andrei Kirilenko
Andrei Kirilenko graduated with a PhD in Economics from University of Pennsylvania and is the Professor of Finance, Director of the Centre for Finance, Technology and Regulation at Cambridge Judge Business School.
A year before the Covid-19 Pandemic, a global loss of USD 39B was made from payment cybercrime and fraud. It has been increasing since then as the pandemic forced businesses and individuals to rapidly move their critical activities from their protected office cyber walls into a compromised digital environment. On the contrary of light Fintech which is giving customers the seamless experience, this dark Fintech-era also wants the process to be seamless and has made cybercriminals much more organized, competitive, and sophisticated as they are taking advantage of new technologies to improve their tactics to exploit the digital customer’s identity. That is why customers need to be diligent and protected to not be an easy target.
4. Leading Fintech disruption Trend in Europe from Claire Calmejane
Claire Calmejane is the Chief Innovation Officer of Societe Generale and Executive Chairman of Treezor Fintech and Non-Executive Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee in Boursorama.
Technology disruption led to a global trend that emerged from mega fintechs such as Stripe ($95M market capital), coinbase which is crypto IPO USA $60B, and klarna ($50M market capital). Those companies will keep transforming to slowly take over the traditional financial banks. Societe Generale hosted a competition among startups to identify fintech status business models to solve ESG and Climate change risk.
European (€0.3T Market Capital) countries such as London and Germany are emerging as the tech leader as the USA (€3.6T Market Capital) and Asia (€1.5T Market Capital) are still in the lead. That is why in Europe, sovereignty in tech controls is important as they do not want their customer rights to be dependent on other non-European countries. There is also a groundbreaking rise in gender equality and diversity to allow more innovative talents.
5. Super Apps and Crypto Assets are the current trend from Yassine Refragui
Yassine Refragui is a Fintech Specialist focusing on China who previously worked in Deloitte, Alipay and Alibaba.
Super apps is a mobile app that includes other apps, every country is trying to offer their own such as China with Wechat and Alipay, Indonesia with Gojek, and Singapore with Grab. The goal is to have a single app that offers many services and opens new doors for in-house and external services. Many companies are also offering invisible payments such as Amazon with “One-click-payment”, Uberpay and now China utilizes QR code and face recognition for mainstream payment.
The Bahamas was the first country with its own Central bank digital currency but China is the country that has the most experimentation of this type of digital currency because many Chinese have experienced the payment through CBDC through stores, taxis, and other scenarios. The goal of these is to be an alternative payment option for accessibility. Also, Crypto assets and NFT’s are increasing more, such as an increase in bitcoin price up to $68,000, and recent regulations about bitcoin mining did not affect the rise of crypto. In the next coming months, there is a rise of open banks and fintech for every type of financial service in different industries to offer unique experiences for consistency.
Conclusion
The pandemic may have boosted the digital era to create a significant impact in Fintech across various industry sectors. Nowadays, people prefer Fintech solutions which are benefiting both the customers and the financial institutions.
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