#Sibos Debate: Innovation in the Fintech World [VIDEO]

The #Sibos conference in Geneva this year is just wrapping up, and the 8,000 and change businesses and fintech companies that attended this year had a lot to discuss.

Since what some might call the fintech boom, which, broadly speaking, occurred after the financial crisis of 2008 and has since continued to expand, there are now 12,000 companies worldwide who focus exclusively on fintech–from marketplace lenders to P2P payment apps to crowdfunding investment services, and so on and so forth, all looking to profoundly change the way we as a global society think and deal with our money.

An important facet of that change is one of the biggest debates in the industry: competition, or collaboration with the big, traditional banks?

As can be seen in the video below (which is an hour long, so get ready for some serious fintech discussion), this is an issue that many in the fintech world are weighing on; on the one hand, a healthy amount of competition is, well, healthy to an industry: it provides consumers with more choice and more range in products offered, and competing with fintech startups is arguably what made traditional financial institutions innovate their technology and services in the first place.

However, collaboration provides its own advantages to the market, as pairing the nimble nature of startup culture–which allows them more creativity and more freedom for innovation–with the resources, stability, and brand awareness of a traditional bank definitely also benefits the consumer: better products, easier to use, and easier to update as the world does.

Take a look at the video below, and weigh in!