5 “Future of Money” Themes
SAN FRANCISCO – Round up a bunch of entrepreneurs and developers together in the same room, and the inevitable chatty dialog will, no doubt, be colorful. Certainly that was true of this week’s The Future of Money & Technology Summit. Though all sessions Bank Innovation attended were rich with fresh ideas and thoughts, five recurring themes and possibilities stood out to us from the one-day event:
1. The financial crisis undermined bank accounts and confidence in the system. As a result, consumers’ trust levels have plummeted. But that lack of trust and new interest in finance should be an opportunity, leaving a central challenge: how can financial services ventures capitalize on people who are trusting again in banking?
2. We’re in a disruptive phase for fintech. Consumers want to know what their money is doing. In turn, it is easier to fund fintech companies. Financial APIs are viewed as one strategy to cultivate FI innovation.
3. Facebook Credits. A number of industry pros are looking at FB Credits as the beginnings of a future master bank contender.
4. Recruiting talent is not easy for the fintech world because of the difficulty balancing the “engineers + financial experience” equation.
5. The market potential of creating new services for the unbanked and underbanked population in America is great.
