“My FinTech prediction for 2019 and beyond is that artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning will continue to have the biggest impact on the industry because the personalization of services will play a key role in winning and keeping customers more so than fees. People love convenience and personalization; whichever company or startup provides this service better than others will have a clear competitive edge in the FinTech industry.”
Spiros Margaris, Margaris Ventures, Ranked Global No. 1 FinTech, AI, Blockchain Influencer by Onalytica
“Consolidation among FinTech startups and platforms on one side, growth of FinTech user base on the other side. The growth rate will be higher where unmet needs can be served with mobile devices. This is especially true for emerging markets where mobile banking is often the first regular possibility to benefit from financial services on a daily basis. FinTech will also continue to proliferate in developed markets. This obviously includes applications in all areas of financial services incl. wealth, lending, etc.”
Urs Bolt, Advisor, bolt.now
“Stream processing - computing on data directly - will be the emerging Techfin enabler in 2019.”
Efi Pylarinou, FinTech & Blockchain Advisor
“Investment volumes continue to rise, as does specialization. Further joint ventures are emerging, and professionals can join FinTechs at their usual bank salaries. Thus, they not only bring technical expertise, but also knowledge about how banks are set up to sell to them. Drivers: Cryptocurrencies at banks, Open APIs for cooperation with Fintechs, especially in the area of SMEs and Corps, automation of banking processes through machine learning, more Insurtech.”
Oscar Neira, FinTech & Banking Consultant
“Technically, it’s data (AI, analytics, etc.). Anyone who can interpret data and generate customer benefit is relevant to the customer. From a financial perspective, the biggest challenge (I would not say trend) is to show the customers, in a simple way, how the service offers added value to them and why they should continue to pay for it. For FinTech companies, the biggest challenge is still finding customers. So the biggest trend in the FinTech ecosystem is not technical, it’s TRANSPARENCY.”
Eric Salzmann, “Digital-Ecosystem enabler” at Vontobel & Co-Founder of think-tank fintechrockers.com
“Disruption……. We are getting there: We were missing the FinTech disruptors in the past, but we see them growing now. Many startups developed value-added services for the FinTech ecosystem to get first revenues. Many of them will expand their influence in the field of the traditional financial institutions. For example, there are different challenger banks inside and outside of Switzerland. I’m expecting high growth in adoption of such services in 2019.”
Andreas Iten, Head SIX FinTech Ventures, Co-Founder & Member of the Board F10