All The Fintech - 1.30.18 - 2018 Fintech Prediction Roundup

Happy Tuesday everyone! I spent the better half of Sunday trying to find and read various viewpoints on what investors, founders, operators, and other pundits in the space think fintech will go in 2018. Unfortunately it was harder than I thought to find some viewpoints from operators in the space vs investors, but thought I'd share a few of my favorite trends below in no particular order...

1) Zach Perret, CEO of Plaid:

"Automation will become a way of life for consumers. So many of our financial decisions or actions are one-offs: paying a bill, making an investment, transferring funds. In 2018 and over the next few years, we’re going to see a big trend moving towards automated financial decisions and actions. From bill autopays to automated savings to better overdraft protection tools, we’re going to see a lot of apps dedicated to helping people live a more automated financial life." (link)

2) CBInsights Report:

"Fintechs unbundling leads to rebundling. Over the last ten years, fintech startups have targeted single underserved financial products with better UI, digital marketing, and branding. In 2018, Fintechs will build, buy, and partner to grow." (link)

3) Howard Lindzon, Investor at SocialLeverage and CEO of StockTwits:

"I have been investing in financial startups (and creating a few) the last 11 years dreaming of a year like 2017. I have been trying to soak it all in and ponder what could happen in the coming years. I don’t think we have seen anything yet...It is almost impossible that a panic does NOT occur in 2018 and by panic I mean an all out acquisition spree." (link)

4) Alicia Pertusa, Head of Transformation at BBVA:

"In 2018, we’ll see how institutional investors start to jump in and invest in these types of assets. Until now, Wall Street and investment banks have lagged behind retail investors." (link)

5) David Brear, CEO at 11:FS:

"The SME space is getting a lot of attention in recent months, could it be the new industry for disruption and fintech innovation in 2018? Will startups and challengers such as Tide, Coconut or Penta shine in the SME space or can the big banks fight back?" (link)

6) American Banker trends:

"More banks will share data with third parties through APIs. But without regulation, there won't be a movement to European-stle open banking. Customers will, however, get more options on how they want their data shared and where, possibly with a subscription service, or by turning their physical cards on and off with a mobile app." (link)

7) Pascal Bouvier, Santander InnoVentures:

"We are also witnessing the potential end of a regulatory cycle. The US administration has clearly indicated its willingness to repeal what it deems to be overbearing and costly financial regulations. In as much as these regulatory changes will only have a domestic impact, we should expect a fintech boost to all things lending." (link)

8) Ruth Foxe Blader, Anthemis Group:

"The term ‘articial intelligence’ is overused. We tend to get very excited about enabling technology rather than its applications. Arti cial intelligence enables new applications in everything from fraud detection to intelligent cash ow management to automation in insurance claims handling. It’s the applications that are worthy of the hype.” (link)

9) Chris Adelsbach, Techstars FinTech:

"The tech trend I called in 2017 was a rise in computational simulation. I still think that this trend will continue, although the big opportunities will rest in Financial Services rather than gaming.” (link)

10) Matt Harris, Bain Capital Ventures:

“SoftBank buys 20 percent of Stripe for $3 billion. PayPal continues to push itself down the path of being the leading financial services company for millennials and the mass market.” (link)

11) Dan Ciporin, Canann Partners:

“Scale is increasingly a competitive moat, with established players like LendingClub and SoFi now competing much more with bank offerings like Marcus from Goldman Sachs.” (link)

12) Jeremy Philips, Spark Capital:

“The tech behemoths have been slow-ish but that’s changing quickly driven largely by Chinese chat/payments envy. Facebook and Apple and others will double down on trying to replicate this in the US.” (link)

13) Alex Rampell, A16Z:

“The first phase of fintech was ‘unbundling’ banks -- taking one of the features of a mega-bank, and doing it better. The next phase is rebundling -- adding other services, and cross-selling products (like SoFi starting in lending and later adding wealth and insurance). Venture capital will flow to successful startups moving into their second act of rebundling.” (link)

14) Ryan Selkis aka TwoBitIdiot:

"2017–2019 will be THE big crypto bubble. Things could get nuttier from here…far nuttier than in the dotcom era. The retail investor base is 10x larger, with 24/7 access to the FOMO and get rich quickism. And we’ve got CNBC to help with the pump!" (link)

15) Amee Parbhoo, Accion Venture Lab:

Low-income consumers in emerging markets need insurance products to manage and mitigate financial risks, but serving those customers poses significant challenges... Startups can play a critical role in solving those challenges with products intended to address specific risks for underserved communities, new distribution channels to reach these populations, and new streams of data to more effectively assess and price risk. (link)