Fintech News Issue #154 February 8th, 2018

Mental health affect us all, not least when we have financial difficulties or worries. Time to Talk Day opens up the conversation around mental health and removes the taboo, asking all of us to be more open about our mental health.

Engaging and supporting consumers via voice channels isn’t just for the mega banks with innovation labs and armies of developers. Regardless of available budget or staffing, there are steps your institution can take to start learning how voice will play a part in your digital strategy.

Amazon Prime, Video, Music, Fresh, Alexa—all loved by many, but would consumers also care for an Amazon checking account? One recent survey says that, yes, a subscription based, value-added checking account is the best thing since free two-day shipping.

Annual worldwide AI revenue is projected to grow from $644 million in 2016 to $37 billion by 2025, with top use cases including algorithmic trading strategy performance improvement; static image recognition, classification, and tagging; efficient, scalable processing of patient data; predictive maintenance; content distribution on social media; and more.

Once its potential is fully explored, blockchain could generate much more than digital money, and empower individuals by putting them in full control of their money and transactions.

According to recent research What’s Going On In Banking 2018, 64% of mid-size bank and credit union executives don’t believe their marketing is future ready. And it was 64% when the question was asked a year ago.

Beyond traditional performance indicators like revenue, cost reduction and process improvement, banking organizations must use data, intelligence and responsiveness to enhance the consumer experience and deliver superior business results.

Technological advances have changed consumer expectations, where satisfaction is measured in a matter of seconds, minutes, or, in the worst case scenario, hours. These is an increasing culture of immediacy that has impacted how people want to engage with their financial institution. Are you ready?

Despite its early forms proving increasingly popular among businesses looking to digitise their operations and cut costs, Artificial Intelligence is still in its infancy, and while the majority of organisations are exploring the benefits of the technology, those that are actually implementing it commonly struggle with its successful execution.

Autumn 2015: Sitting in class at University of Hong Kong, I was waiting for the start of a new course: “Introduction to FinTech and its Impact on the Future of Banking and Finance” taught by Henri Arslanian (the current Fintech leader of PwC China/HK).

Autumn 2017: Fintech is everywhere.

I sent out a Tweet during the lunch with a picture. One of my followers made a comment in the replies – ‘Wow, that is a sea of men in dark suits!’. I felt annoyed. ‘Yes,’ I thought ‘this is banking and technology in Europe, there are a lot of men!‘

What changes can one expect across as retail, CPG and e-commerce segments adopt newer business models and AI gains ground?

For as long as I can recall there have been presentations on commerce that always featured the classification of companies within industries that have led to graphics made up of “boxes” into which it was very easy to position any business.