Right now, we’re witnessing the unstoppable rise of fintech on a global scale. It’s disrupting and transforming traditional financial services models and revolutionising the way we all view finances. What does the future of fintech look like?

We’re finally seeing traditional financial services stalwarts fully embrace fintech, either by developing their own proprietary tech or by acquiring disruptive start-ups. Voice, virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence and blockchain technology are embedded in the financial services model at every level.

And, since the advent of fintech, the financial services industry has turned on its head. Innovation, disruption and change are the watchwords for an industry sector that traditionally saw power held by the few. Fintech is allowing newcomers to fully disrupt the industry and provide better services to companies and individuals all over the world.

PayPal and Venmo are among the most well-known fintech companies, but the list is growing by the day. The impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has also been huge, successfully leveraged across everything from virtual AI assistants and chatbots to consumer-driven data and behaviour and fraud detection.

• The global financial sector is expected to be worth US$26.5 trillion in 2022 (MarketScreener).

• Fintech market share across 48 fintech unicorns is worth over US$187 billion as of the first half of 2019, or slightly over 1% of the global financial industry (CB Insights).

• Fintech reached US$55.3 billion in investments in 2019 (Accenture).

• 5,779 fintech start-ups in the Americas (the most globally).

• 3,583 in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, 2,849 in Asia and the Pacific.

• Blockchain and regtech (regulatory technology) are the fastest growing segments of the fintech industry (Grand View Research, Transparency Market Research).

• In 2019, 64% of consumers worldwide had used one or more fintech platforms, up from 33% in 2017 (Ernst & Young).

• 75% of global consumers have used at least one fintech service to pay online or using a mobile application (Ernst & Young).

• And 60% of consumers want to transact business with financial institutions with a single platform, such as social media or mobile banking apps (Ernst & Young).

(Source: https://financesonline.com/fintech-statistics/ )

Personalisation – thanks to big data and AI, hyper-personalisation in the sector is now unprecedented. Financial services organisations have access to a plethora of data rich information about their customers’ online history, behaviour and more. AI is integrating all of this to deliver an unprecedently personalised experience for customers.

Robotic process automation (RPA) – this is helping financial services organisations to be more efficient and compliant. And RPA is being used on everything from customer onboarding to security checks and reporting.

Mobile payments – are set to continue to rise in popularity and sophistication with fingerprint and facial recognition.

Blockchain – the technology behind cryptocurrency is out from under Bitcoin’s shadow. It’s now being used to make making everything more efficient, more secure and more accessible. Blockchain is revolutionising operations and processes throughout the industry.