Top 5 fintech predictions that will redefine the landscape of financial markets in 2021

There would be no wrong in saying that digitization faced an immense push during the pandemic year, especially in the fintech industry.

Keeping in mind that rapid pace of increment, fintech advancements will lead us towards an unpredictable future according to numerous leaders of financial infrastructures. 

What can we expect from fintech in upcoming years? We can never know for sure. However, here are insights from some major fintech experts about the future of fintech and the trends that will continue to grow in the near future.  

Prediction #1: Digital banks and neobanks will face more obstacles and challenges as BigTech and financial services are emerging 

Founder and President of RTS Strategic Communications, Rich Silverman predicted that “digital banking will redefine itself in the upcoming years and will face significant changes. Noticeably, several neobanks were shut down during 2020. This downfall makes it obvious that people prefer traditional banking over digital platforms, affecting the reputation of digital banking diversely.”

Hence digital banking service providers should enhance security features and all those mandatory requirements for the development of transparency between customers and businesses.  Simultaneously, numerous platforms based on specific groups’ unique financial services challenges were developed, including Greenwood, Paybby, Tenth. Firms like these comprehend their own financial requirements and why these groups tend to walk away from traditional banks. It would be interesting to see how these firms will emerge in 2021 and beyond and how these business plans resonate with their targeted prospects. 

Prediction #2: More and more people will trust Bitcoin

Digital assets such as cryptocurrency Bitcoin and Ethereum faced immense growth, especially during the pandemic year. The main factor why people are prone towards these is trust and reliability. More conservative investors such as JP Morgan predicted that they see potential in the emergence of digital currencies. Trust is the only thing that holds value specifically in financial infrastructures. Central banks have been corroding over time just because of trust, culminating in the back of coronavirus. Also, over-leverage has played a crucial role in that correlation. 

Founder and CEO of the Dadiani Syndicate, Eleesa Dadiani, claimed that:

“The recent advent in Bitcoin is testimony to trust transitions and this emergence will continue to grow at the speed of light in the near future. From state-backed money to state agnostic assets, be it gold or Bitcoin, trust is the key. ”

Prediction #3: The number of fintech unicorns will continue to grow, but analysts believe that the graph will face a downfall

CMO at Tipalti, Rob Israch, commented that:

“With five companies receiving unicorn status during the first week of the year, 2021 will be the year when companies would surge to invest a hefty amount for enhancements. Businesses are crawling in search of the latest innovative ways to keep thriving and moving forwards. When we take a deep insight into the unicorns of the market, we get to acknowledge ourselves with the fact that by focusing on product-market fit, businesses have reached the peak of the graph. They have a unique growth strategy and fundraising plans such as crowdfunding, bootstrapping, and VC funding. The most evolving industries in 2020 were fintech and e-commerce and the main reason for their exposure was their integration with the latest algorithms of artificial intelligence. These innovations will continue to serve customer demands and will hit unicorn status up to the mark in 2021.”

Prediction #4: Bringing Cloud-based payment Infrastructures from hype to mainstream 

Cloud-based platforms are becoming a new normal considering the rapid growth in the number of hackers in parallel to technological advancements. Considering this emergence in cloud computing, it is mandatory to protect such platforms in a much more efficient and significant way. 

The senior vice president of Global Acceptance Solutions at Mastercard, Nili Klenoff, stated that “we depicted the very first deployment of credit card or MasterCard cloud tap on mobile devices from anywhere around the globe. We have shifted our “Tap on Phone” product to the cloud. This will enable partners to develop their own tap-on phone solutions with much more enhancement than before. Any business can provide the best customer experience by using their smartphone.”

Prediction #5: Commercial banking is prone to the digitisation and revolutionises the way companies develop a relationship with digital banking

Commercial and SME Banking Consulting Leader of EY Americas Matt Cox claimed that “customers have become more comfortable with subscription models that make it efficient yet easy to perform CRUD(create, read, update and delete) operations on features. Commercial and corporate banking clients are always craving the capability to add and remove products more accurately and efficiently. Banks must acquire efficient “plug-and-play” approaches to attract the attention of customers in future to create value-driven relationships”

Future Surprises Await!

Since we are currently dealing with predictions, the future is full of surprises. Exciting yet unpredictable. As depicted by the science fiction author Karl Shroeder, 

“Foresight is not about predicting the future, it’s all about minimising the surprise.”

This quotation is highly relevant keeping in view the future predictions of fintech. The above-mentioned industry leader insights and predictions lead us towards the fact that fintech is one of the most evolving industries in this modern era of technological advancements, and will evolve with the speed of light in the upcoming future.  Technology is advancing swiftly, ensuring customer trust and reliability by providing them with enhanced security features accurately and efficiently. This continuous evolution in the fintech industry is full of uncertainty and in the upcoming years,  the fintech industry will be emerging as a captivating and trustworthy sector.

Image by Miloslav Hamřík from Pixabay