Last year, the UK accounted for
42% of all European fintech investments, but other countries are also embracing financial technology. Fintech has become a ubiquitous term for any technology applied to financial services, and it is starting to change the way firms in the sector operate.
Top trends
Globally, the wave of fintech innovation looks set to continue. Anna Irrera of
efinancialnews.com has highlighted five fintech themes to look out for this year.
“The continuing rise of mobile technology and greater collaboration between banks and innovators will be among the key trends in fintech this year,” she writes, in a piece that considers the predictions of industry executives who gathered for the
recent FinTechStage conference in Milan.
500
The approximate number of fintech start-ups with full-time workers currently operating in Australia“While mobile has been a key trend in technology for a number of years, delegates suggested that its impact has only scraped the surface for now,” Irrera reports. “They expect mobile technologies to evolve and play an increasingly important role, as more investments flow into companies in that market.”
Interestingly, she adds, this rise in innovation and new technology will also encourage financial services organisations to go back to basics, to consider how they might make their products and services more reflective of the basic needs of today’s industry.
efinancialnews.com piece
Deals down under
The boom in fintech innovation isn’t limited to European organisations. Fintech start-ups are also becoming hot property in Australia, according to
businessspectator.com’s Fran Foo.
Australia’s financial services sector may have been a “little slow off the mark” when it came to technology, but it’s now catching up. The country is currently home to up to 500 fintech start-ups with full-time workers, Foo reveals – a figure that excludes the additional number working part-time in fintech while holding down day jobs.
And that number looks set to increase. “Hundreds of millions of dollars in funding await local financial technology start-ups as the largest banks, insurers and wealth management institutions jostle for pole position, in fear of missing out on the ‘next big thing’,” adds Foo.
businessspectator.com story Asian assets
Fintech start-ups are starting to shake up the banking sector in Asia, too. With fintech becoming ever more important for banks,
crbonline.com’s Jimmy Nicholls notes that innovators are now modifying everything from payments to capital markets.
One of the key ways in which Asian banks are using technology is to protect against cyber threats. “Cybersecurity is more important to finance than most other industries – after all, why would you leave your money in a place you believe is unsafe?” writes Nicholls.
Smartphones are playing an important role in Asia’s fintech revolution. “The internet has brought trading closer to the masses than ever before, eliminating the middle men who used to control the industry,” he comments. “As such, people are becoming increasingly interested in conducting wealth management from their phones.”
Upwardly mobile and here to stay, it’s clear that fintech is already transforming the way financial transactions are carried out.
cbronline.com article
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