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Our new articles series, “Future of Fintech” will focus on fintech experts around the world. Top executives will share their thoughts on the trends that will transform financial services.
Dr. Jaya Vaidhyanathan
Jaya is one of the few Women leaders in the banking sector and oversees product creation, strategy and execution across financial services, retail and telecommunications business at Bahwan CyberTek. Jaya brings over two decade of experience in spearheading functions like Corporate Finance, M&A, Risk Management, Outsourcing Advisory & Technology across leading companies like Accenture and Standard Chartered Bank. She brings deep domain knowledge across verticals and geographies, strong financial acumen and experience of handling multi-million dollar single vendor deals.
Q: What technology or new business model will have the major impact on financial services in the next 5 years?
In a market that is stagnant or in slow growth, financial institutions are now focusing to be diligent about risk mitigation. Business cycles are getting shorter and new business models are changing the game. In the new world, conventional technologies will not be able to help banks stay productive or profitable. This holds true particularly when viewed in the context of risk and liquidity management or staying compliant in a changing regulatory landscape.
As the economy and the financial sector grows, it is foreseen that banks may put in place technology systems to effectively control risks related to credit, liquidity, market and operations. This is where risk-less banking experiences, regulatory authorities and digital transformation comes in, drawing on the strengths of game-changing technologies to redefine the FinTech playground. In the next 5 years safe and responsive banking will take centre stage. High-quality data, emerging technologies and a robust FinTech strategy will be central to assisting bankers resolve bad loan scenarios and frauds. The emphasis will be on accelerating problem detection and taking pre-emptive actions.
This will be journeyed and executed through use of analytics for predictive modelling of macro and microeconomic events, use of Artificial Intelligence to make unbiased decisions with thousands of data points taking the digital realm above and beyond. This paradigm may transform to the extent that technologies can do what a human mind can comprehend and that is where the financial institutions are leapfrogging towards. At BCT Digital our goal will be to stay focused on using disruptive technologies, like, AI/ML, Predictive analytics and Blockchain, to expedite India’s move to the next generation of banking. We have been effectively converging emerging technologies with banking, and will endeavour to keep the momentum going.
~ Dr. Jaya Vaidhyanathan
Maurizio Raffone
Maurizio is the CEO of Finetiq Limited, a management consulting firm focused on the FinTech market and operating in Japan and Hong Kong.Maurizio has 20 years of international finance experience, with expertise in credit derivatives, structured finance and fund management. Prior to Finetiq, Maurizio’s most recent roles were as Managing Director at UniCredit, Italy's biggest bank, and as Partner at TriSpan LLP, an asset management firm based in London, where he was Deputy Chief Investment Officer of TriSpan’s global macro fund.
Q: What technology or new business model will have the major impact on financial services in the next 5 years?
Based on the recent market developments, it would be tempting to say that the amazonification of financial services will be the main driver of change in the financial services industry. However, I see a more important theme emerging: financial inclusion.I believe that financial services will become more inclusive globally, allowing under- and un-banked individuals and businesses, both in developed and developing countries, access sophisticated and cost efficient financial solutions that were previously either too expensive or simply not offered to them. The adoption of agile business practices by incumbent financial services firms, as well as innovative services and technology developed by FinTech startups, will be able to develop profitable business models currently not served by traditional financial services.
~ Maurizio Raffone
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Syed Musheer Ahmed
Musheer is the Managing Director of FinStep Asia, providing advisory on Fintech & Digital ecosystems in Asia. He is cofounder and board member of Fintech Association of Hong Kong and has an extensive background in financial services and technology, having been a global markets trader for a decade, and a management consultant following his MBA. He is a member of United Nations ESCAP ESBN Youth and Women Entrepreneurs Taskforce (YET) and co-founder of IndiaTech Hong Kong, a platform for bridging India and China Greater Bay Area. Musheer has a keen interest in technologies impacting/disrupting investment banking such as blockchain, artificial intelligence and digital banking. He has a strong passion to bridge India and China Greater Bay Area, and has driven on various initiatives to connect the two ecosystems.
Q: What technology or new business model will have the major impact on financial services in the next 5 years?
The future is going to be the platformication of financial services, led by the techfins. The lines between techfin/big tech and banking will start blurring and we will see banks embrace a modular approach, where they provide core banking services, while having various fintech partners to augment these services through agile digital offerings.
This business model will be enabled by a cloud hosted, mobile first model driven through a tailored and customised offering for each client. With more connected devices and large amount of data, firms will be able to provide these tailored services which will rely on alternative data sources and newer risk models.
~ Syed Musheer Ahmed
Mirna Sleiman
Mirna is the founder and CEO of Fintech Galaxy, the MENA region's digital fintech community and crowdsourcing platform. Mirna also advises governments and regional institutions on digital transformation strategies. She has more than 15 years of experience in government affairs, investor relations, journalism, strategic digital communications and global partnerships with public and private clients. Mirna is MIT Certified in Fintech and e-Commerce, has an Executive MBA from Cass Business School (City University of London) and certified in Digital Marketing and Communications from Columbia Business School.
Q: What technology or new business model will have the major impact on financial services in the next 5 years?
Blockchain will change how banking is done. It will impact customer onboarding process, AML and trade financing.
~ Mirna Sleiman
Ran Cohen
Online industry veteran, Former founder of Traders group (that was acquired), founder and CEO of Bridger Pay, and Ai based payment technology. with a mission to continuing the path in reshaping how online businesses utilize their payment data.
Q: What technology or new business model will have the major impact on financial services in the next 5 years?
We believe that AI will take a big part in bringing transparency to the online businesses. It will change how they manage and optimize their payments, their conversion and the complete experiences of their end users. Imagine a software that can consider billions of possible hypotheses at scale. One of those hypotheses can be your next breakthrough. Instead of manually testing a hypothetical outcome against a dataset, Using Ai, you can automatically analyze massive amounts of data and shift it through a range of clarifiers – equations, definitions sentiments, locations – to build the best predictive model with a measurable business goal in mind. As the data changes the model adapts using adaptive machine learning algorithms.
~ Ron Cohen
Alex Medana
Alex Medana is the co-founder and CEO of FinFabrik, a FinTech firm based in Hong Kong. FinFabrik creates financial technology to reinvent capital markets, empowering businesses to transform the way individuals trade, invest and build wealth.Previously, Alex had spent 17 years in various Tier 1 global financial institutions overseeing operations across diverse asset classes, client segments and business lines in Europe and APAC. He has become a serial entrepreneur and angel investor since 2015, and he has been advocating technology-driven innovation to bring forward more user-friendly financial services and broader participation.Alex is a founding board member of the Fintech Association of Hong Kong and sits on the Fintech Council of the Astana International Financial Centre and the Digital Economy Task Force of the UN ESCAP Sustainable Business Network. Beyond his business acumen, Alex is a martial arts practitioner, hence the passion for simplicity and aspiration to share his knowledge have shaped him to be a sought-after mentor, advisor and speaker. He has been recognised as one of the Top 100 Fintech influencers in Asia and Top 9 in Hong Kong.
Q: What technology or new business model will have the major impact on financial services in the next 5 years?
As a capital markets practitioner, I will say DLT particularly around matching supply vs demand and democratising finance through fractional ownership.
~ Alex Medana
Nako Mbelle
Nako has over 15 years of experience in the technology sector and has held roles in Business Development, Strategy, Sales, Marketing Analytics and Recruiting.She is the Founder and CEO of FinTech Recruiters, a global recruitment firm that she started in 2014; to meet the growing worldwide demand for experienced Fintech and Blockchain talent. She brings a deep understanding of the emerging trends in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space and is passionate about bringing cutting edge ideas and technologies to a mainstream audience.
Q: What technology or new business model will have the major impact on financial services in the next 5 years?
Blockchain – Decentralization.
~ Nako Mbelle
Mikael Munck
Fintech leader with 20+ years’ international experience as executive, investor and board member.
Q: What technology or new business model will have the major impact on financial services in the next 5 years?
AI, blockchain and deeper partnerships across to the technology sector.
~ Mikael Munck
Andy Jamieson
Andy is a serial entrepreneur with over 20 years of digital marketing experience. Andy has founded and exited Switched On (a digital marketing agency) to global marketing agency group WPP. Now building Advisr, the platform that connects people with an insurance broker they can trust. Advisr was a finalist in the Australian Insurance Industry Awards and is the leading platform for customers to find and connect with insurance brokers.
Q: What technology or new business model will have the major impact on financial services in the next 5 years?
Financial service usage and consumption is all driven by customer needs. Right now, customers have a low level of trust in the major financial institutions and associated distribution channels. Technology will change this. People will be able to gain more control over their data, and know its value, gain transparency over service, pricing and product and in addition, will have great access to more diverse and bespoke financial services. The challenge will be to navigate these increased options and capabilities easily and effectively. So we see an increased role for industry experts to help guide and direct individuals and SMEs to products that best suit their needs. What will change will be the remuneration models that have existed historically.
~ Andy Jamieson
Sid Bhandari
Sid Bhandari is the Founder /CEO of DepositBook, a global marketplace for wholesale deposits. We are a group of ex bankers who have started a Fintech company to bring efficiency to the way Banks manage their liabilities.
Q: What technology or new business model will have the major impact on financial services in the next 5 years?
Open Banking Platform where Banks become platform for enabling a range of services from 3rd party providers and where customers can freely engage to discover best prices and solution through marketplace.
~ Sid Bhandari
Charlotte Petris
Charlotte founded Timelio, an online marketplace for invoice and supply chain finance, after experiencing first-hand how difficult it was for businesses to raise finance. A Chartered Accountant and corporate financier with 20 years of experience advising and helping businesses access capital, she sees Timelio as an opportunity to “do it different” in the world of finance. Charlotte is actively involved in shaping Australia’s Fintech Industry. She was a founding board member of FinTech Australia and is a member of the Australian Federal Government’s FinTech Advisory Group.
Q: What technology or new business model will have the major impact on financial services in the next 5 years?
Technology enables innovative new business models to evolve which ultimately improve the customer experience. I describe financial services as the extinction phase, you either rapidly adapt or you go extinct. I expect the biggest impact on financial services will come from new entrants into the industry from non-financial services companies offering more convenient and targeted services across the ecosystem. For example, technology companies in e-commerce and media who are well-positioned to exploit opportunities from changes in regulation that enable new business models whilst leveraging their existing infrastructure. These new business models may include new distribution and risk assessment models enabled by technology and new funding models. This ultimately means a stronger value proposition to the customer enabling more customers to be served with a less capital intensive model. Large financial services companies will continue to offload non-core businesses including wealth management and insurance with regulatory costs having a significant impact on profits.
~ Charlotte Petris
Pam Pecs Cytron
Pam Pecs Cytron is the Founder/CEO of Pendo Systems, Inc., a New Jersey-based financial technology company founded in 2008. Pendo provides technology for the global capital markets industry and currently serves 25 percent of the US G-SIFIs and is specifically focused on extracting insights from unstructured data. In 2015, Pam pivoted Pendo Systems to create a machine learning platform that helps make financial institutions AI-ready by turning unstructured data in structured, AI-ready data sets at a machine scale.
Q: What technology or new business model will have the major impact on financial services in the next 5 years?
Machine learning. I believe ML will supercede AI in function and effectiveness over the next 5 years for the simple reason that it is a far more mature technology than AI, and more ready for prime time. AI will happen but there is way more development and time needed for it to become as effective as ML is now.
~ Pam Pecs Cytron
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