The other forecasting I made at start of year concerned the big FinTech trends of 2017. Again, I thought it might be of interest to revisit them.
Removing friction from the customer journey
I guess this is a given, and wasn’t a big trend of 2017 … just a big trend of FinTech per se.
Rise of InsurTech
True. I’ve seen a lot of InsurTech movement this year with a number of standout start-ups like Backmeup, Brolly, Buzzmove, Cuvva, Inmybag, Luther and Neos.
Rise of RegTech
Yep, I’ve heard more about RegTech this year than ever before, although that’s unsurprising when most banks have at least two staff checking the work of each employee (Citibank has 40,000 compliance people!). Consultancy picks out 100 of the most innovative firms in this space.
PSD2 forces banks and FinTech to partner
PSD2 has been high on the list all year, with its imminent implementation in January 2018, but if anything it split banks and FinTechs rather than made them partners. This was evidenced by the manifesto issued by 65 of Europe’s biggest FinTechs in May 2017, stating that the banks’ interpretation of PSD2 was against the principles of Open Banking. That has changed a little bit, with banks like BBVA launching an Open Platform, but many banks are still quite reluctant to opening up. Maybe that will change in 2018.
Platforms, APIs and Open Banking are the key
I feel like I’ve been talking platforms all year and, with PSD2 and Open Banking coming into play in January 2018, it is certainly true that platforms, APIs and Open Banking have definitely been the theme of 2017.
Blockchain moves out of the labs into the real world
Certainly, as mentioned yesterday, this has come of age with the Australian Stock Exchange, UBS and others planning live system implementations for 2018.
Reform of the bank boardroom
I would like to say this happened in 2017, but didn’t see any major movements apart from Maile Carnegie talking about the challenges of digital transformation at ANZ.
Chatbots, machine learning, AI
Yes, again, this has definitely been a big year for AI with news that JP Morgan were laying off lawyers to Lemonade settling insurance claims in seconds, oh and not forgetting Erica (Bank of America).
FinTech gets integrated with social media
Not so sure I saw so much of this. Correct me if I’m wrong.
FinTech gets integrated with the Internet of Things (IoT)
Not so sure I saw so much of this. Correct me if I’m wrong.
China and emerging markets focus
Ah yes, I definitely think this year has been a big year for financial inclusion and discussions of Ant Financial and Tencent. You only need to checkout how many mentions made to see what I mean.
Cybersecurity is a big worry
Like taking friction out of the customer journey, this is a given.
There you have it. The big themes of 2017 predicted in January are big themes, with 4 of the 12 forecasts being not so obvious during the year. I’ll therefore give myself 7 out of 10 for these trend forecasts.
Meanwhile, here’s two predictions for 2018 trends:
- Removing friction from the customer journey
- Cybersecurity is a big worry
Chris M Skinner
Chris Skinner is best known as an independent commentator on the financial markets through his blog, TheFinanser.com, as author of the bestselling book Digital Bank, and Chair of the European networking forum the Financial Services Club. He has been voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand (as well as one of the best blogs), a FinTech Titan (Next Bank), one of the Fintech Leaders you need to follow (City AM, Deluxe and Jax Finance), as well as one of the Top 40 most influential people in financial technology by the Wall Street Journal's Financial News. To learn more click here...
