As a result of significant technological advancements, the financial services sector has grown at a fantastic pace in recent years. Hence, several new themes are developing in the banking ecosystem that will play essential roles in developing both new and conventional financial services companies in the following years.
As the CEO of Hardbacon, Julien Brault aims to guide his team with collaborative leadership. He co-founded Hardbacon to help Canadians make better investment decisions and has since raised over $2million and landed strategic partnerships with financial institutions all over the country. Before launching Hardbacon, Brault shared his passion for finance and technology as a business reporter for Les Affaires. He also served as Director of Growth for a fintech investment fund.
Here, Brault shares five fintech trends that he believes will reshape the financial services landscape:
Open Banking
Open banking may be described as a collaborative approach in which financial data is exchanged between two or more unaffiliated entities via an application program interface (APIs) to improve the marketplace’s capabilities. As the name implies, it is a method for financial institutions to automatically and securely exchange customer information. Because the API serves as a software middleman, enabling various apps to interact with one another, customer data is transferred quickly and securely when API is used. Using Open Banking, companies may securely share their banking information with lenders, allowing them to process loan applications more rapidly and efficiently than before. Consequently, lenders may better understand a company’s or individual’s performance, allowing them to make decisions faster.
New loan products have been introduced to the market with increased access to financial data, possibly causing further upheaval in the lending environment. Besides, the possibilities of open banking are limitless: assisting with tax calculations, generating coupons or deals based on your past preferences and purchases, accelerating account transfers, etc.
Platforms such as Hardbacon (Canada), Moneybox (United Kingdom) and Chime (United States) empower individuals to take charge of their personal finances to make use of screen scraping and open banking to provide customised product recommendations in a variety of areas, covering insurance, banking, budgeting, credit cards, mortgages, financial freedom, budgeting, loans, and other financial products.
Blockchain
Blockchain is changing everything, from financial transactions to the way money is generated in the private sector. This is because blockchains constitute new technological layers rewiring the Internet and challenge existing legacy systems by avoiding them. The blockchain network’s fundamental fabric is built on trust, and this trust has the potential to eliminate intermediaries and disrupt their existing operating models in the process. This innovative and easy protocol enables transactions to be kept concurrently and securely via a decentralised public or private ledger, which may be either public or private.
With the capacity to practically record everything of value, the blockchain architecture can challenge and disrupt current centralised business structures and the financial services industry – without a doubt. Regulatory reporting would be enhanced, simpler, and more efficient due to the use of blockchain technology. By using a single data source, the gathering, consolidation, and exchange of information will be completed automatically and in real-time. Supply chain finance, treasury management, project financing, investment banking-related operations, cross-border company-to-business payments, and small business trade payouts are just a few of the practical applications of blockchain that have already been prototyped. In the not-too-distant future, there will most likely be a unified blockchain system shared by many sectors. Having one system rather than several for various businesses and sectors makes it simpler and more accessible to the general public and provides better transparency and security via blockchain.
Chatbots
For many years, voice banking has been in use in the United States; in fact, Wells Fargo was one of the first foreign banks to use it. Over the years, not only has its popularity grown but so have its capabilities as well. US Bank became the first bank to provide speech banking on all three main voice assistants – Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant – when it launched its voice banking service in 2017. The emergence of artificial intelligence chatbots in the banking sector demonstrates how rapidly the corporate environment is changing, even in historically conservative industries. These are among the most promising techniques of chatbots in the banking, financial services, and insurance industries. For example, finance chatbots are capable of assisting users from anywhere in the globe. They can also swiftly resolve typical problems such as changing passwords, managing transactions, or locating the closest open office. Besides, chatbots are capable of handling numerous queries at the same time.
Chatbots may have a beneficial effect on consumer loyalty and brand engagement while also assisting in the growth of revenues and reducing expenses for businesses. However, this is only true if they provide the experience that consumers want. Selecting the most suitable development platform that offers the conversational intelligence, adaptability, and control that banks need is critical to the project’s success. According to projections, the adoption of financial services chatbots will save companies $7.3billion over the next two years. Using a strong chatbot strategy, it would be feasible to completely reimagine customer interaction and allow consumers to access most services and facilities from the comfort of their own homes. Both the parties’ consumers and financial actors will profit from this and the stakeholders’ ability to keep up over time.
Equity crowdfunding
As one of the most popular unconventional startup financing alternatives for early-stage companies, equity crowdfunding is becoming more ubiquitous because it provides a robust win-win proposition for both investors and entrepreneurs. Several equity crowdfunding platforms include:
- MicroVentures
- Fundable
- SeedInvest
- AngelList
- CircleUp
Although equity crowdfunding is still in its infancy, we see an actual worldwide paradigm change. The private securities investing markets are becoming more successful due to the use of comparable internet ideas. In the process, these models are altering the value chains and responsibilities of the whole financial industry. Early regulation is a positive thing, but the financial industry must take steps to ensure that activities are adequately regulated and that platforms provide tools for monitoring and transparency. According to industry experts, equity crowdfunding is poised to transform the future of financing for high-growth enterprises across the world. Because of the greater openness and the possibility for better profits that would result, more money will be directed into ESG early-stage enterprises, which will, in turn, expand the equity crowdfunding industry.
Banking as a Service (BaaS)
In essence, the supply of banking goods and services via third-party distributors is known as Banking as a Service (BaaS). When nonbanking companies are integrated with regulated financial infrastructure, BaaS services open up the possibility of new, specialised proposals being developed and brought to market more quickly. In addition, BaaS will link online platforms and financial services, transforming the corporate landscape for years to come. Providing BaaS is reshaping the financial value chain, paving the way for decentralisation and laying the groundwork for new development sources for the industry.
With the advent of the BaaS model and the banking industry’s shift away from conventional banks, digital bank services are becoming more widely available. Customers may benefit from additional services provided by businesses that offer banking as a service, like financial management, digital loan services, and embedded URL payments. As a result of its greater malleability, BaaS can provide a great deal of security with a small amount of information, enabling more sectors to enjoy the advantages of quick and intelligent financial management while also serving as a hub for how money flows in the financial industry. BaaS is projected to overtake traditional banking business models within five years. Owing to individuals and companies’ need for quick financial services delivered digitally or via open interfaces. With these considerations in mind, the future of BaaS indicates a significant change in player responsibility. Banks may transition from “manufacturers” to “assemblers.” This implies that they will not be only focused on their primary banking services. Banks will rather package the services provided by their partnerships as value-added offerings.
