The field of finance is evolving.

Financial service firms, insurance agencies, and investment banks are all
increasingly at the intersection of data and technology, harnessing algorithms, machine learning, big
data and blockchain to conduct business.

Originally, Financial Technology, or fintech, referred to the back end technology used to operate
traditional financial services institutions. Today, the term has broadened to incorporate new
technological innovations in the financial sector, such as blockchains, cryptocurrencies, robo-
advising, and even crowdfunding. Simply put, fintech enhances financial activities through the
application of technology. 

We are currently undergoing what many people refer to as the fourth industrial revolution. As with

and is at the beginning of the hype cycle so make sure you take a look at it,
now and in the coming years.

Bockchain in the Investment Bank by Accenture via FINTECH Singapore

The expected huge growth of blockchain, so TODAY essentially the

distributed database technology which drives cryptocurrency Bitcoin’s public
transaction ledger and is seen as an enabler of many changes in financial
technologies and far beyond, is related with the benefits and expected potential
in many areas it offers. Blockchain, for instance, could totally disrupt clearing
and settlement processes as we know them today in finance. Everyone agrees
that blockhain will be big but there are as many questions as there are possible
usages of it. Note that blockchain technology is not the sames as
cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.
Marketplace lending, peer-to-peer lending and crowdfunding: for
the shorter term?
Next on the list are crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending. Virtually
everyone is familiar with the concepts of crowdfunding (raising money from the
‘crowd’) and peer-to-peer (remember those old peer-to-peer LAN network
technologies where two computers connect and “talk” without a server, well,
here the peer is you and me and all of us with some peer-to-peer technology
too) in general.

In the FinTech Survey Report 2016 from the CFA Institute, 23 percent
of respondents see marketplace/peer-to-peer lending as having the
greatest impact on the financial services industry in one year from now.

However, in five years from now that number drops significantly to 13 percent.
Also crowdfunding is dropping: from 15 percent to 11 percent. In other words:
crowdfunding and marketplace or peer-to-peer lending seem to be more or less
important for the shorter term and both will be far less important than
blockchain technology while they are still seen as more important in that short
term.
FinTech: why now – and how do/will financial
service firms react?
Obviously, these four technologies/evolutions are far from the only ones as you
could read before. FinTech is a lot and it’s hot. In April, Accenture found that in
the first quarter of 2016 global investment in financial technology ventures
reached 5.3 billion USD – a whopping increase of 67 percent compared with the
same period the year before.

FinTech is gaining attention for many reasons. It’s not exactly as if several

forms of it are new (think digital and mobile payments, for instance). As
mentioned there is the increasing adoption and trust regarding FinTech from
consumers, in the end the ultimate disrupters.

Second and as a consequence, there is a very active startup and investment

scene with FinTech hubs across the globe and incumbents and other firms
taking initiatives to react in various forms and shapes. Next there are the many
third platform innovation accelerators with technologies that enable newcomers
to drive business models and approaches which are clearly pleasing an
increasing number of ‘mobile and digital first’ consumers in ways they are
getting used to and offering experiences and convenience that they didn’t see in
finance for a long time. And of course there is the changing consumer as such,
combined with business solutions that make lives of businesses offering or
wanting to offer specific services or re-engineering processes, cheaper, faster
and better too.