FinTech Futures Industry Survey & Report 2021
There is no doubt that the financial services industry is approaching 2021 with a completely different mindset to one it had in January 2020. The global landscape has changed.
The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has fundamentally changed how businesses evaluate their future strategies going forward into a new decade.
Throughout 2020 we heard that the pandemic is “accelerating” the adoption of digital technologies. While that may be true, it has also exposed the areas in dire need of change.
Banks and financial institutions will look at their legacy technology with an ever-critical eye this year. Can the same technologies that kept things ticking over for the past ten, 15, or 20 years be trusted to get them through 2021 and beyond?
Source: FinTech Futures Industry Survey & Report 2021
Two of the largest M&A deals in 2020 involved the payments industry. Visa paid $5.3 billion for a (now cancelled) tie-up with Plaid, while Worldline spent $8.6 billion to buy Ingenico. The payments landscape is a diverse one, despite mega-mergers seeking to consolidate the market further.
Consumers have shifted their preferences from the physical to the digital. Cheques and cash is out, cards and digital payments are in. New digital wallets, interbank transfer services, payment rails, and credit providers are putting increasing pressure on industry incumbents.
Those same changing consumer preferences create pressure on firms to provide up-to-date and easy-to-use interfaces, applications, and journeys for their users. User experience and interface design is becoming a key battleground in the cold war of customer retention, as traditional banks throw their weight behind aping digital newcomers.
Brexit has become a reality, and as the UK seeks to carve its own path regulatorily from the EU, those in compliance departments should be ready to weather a storm of new regulation, and meeting dual requirements to continue coordination across their European operations. A new administration in the US, set on rolling forward for stringent regulation, should also be factored into things.
Source: FinTech Futures Industry Survey & Report 2021
Cybercriminals continue to focus their attention on financial institutions. While the industry has some of the tightest protections, all it takes is one loose link in the chain for the bad guys to get away with reputationally damaging breaches of data. As banks swing towards a more technological focus, where does the responsibility for keeping out the hackers lie?
FinTech Futures has polled the industry for its input on the trends, technologies, sectors, and strategies crucial to success in 2021. From digital banking to the back office, from cryptocurrency to cybercrime, we’ve gone to the market to find out what’s making the industry tick.
The report also features expert insight from the report sponsor ServiceNow, and Keith Pearson, the firm’s financial services head for Europe, Middle East and Africa.
