VIEW FROM THE TOP THE FINTECH TIMES
MOVING FINTECH FORWARD FINTECH LEADERS SHARE THEIR VIEW FROM THE TOP ON HOW WE CAN START 2023 WITH A FORWARD FOCUS
D
uring the second half of 2022, questions over whether fintech was ‘losing its lustre’ started to proliferate with news of multiple job layoffs and recruitment freezes across the industry and a lack of funding either stunting growth or leading to companies packing up shop completely. The fintech industry is not alone with companies globally also facing several macroeconomic problems including price volatility, supply shortages, security issues and economic uncertainty as the war in Ukraine rumbles on. To start 2023 on a more optimistic note, despite the gloomy outlook, we’ve turned to leaders across the fintech community to hear their views on how we can move fintech forward in the coming new year. Layla White, founder & CEO of onboarding firm Tech Passport
“Collaboration is what will drive fintech forward in 2023. IBM recently reported that 48 per cent of banks had partnered with a fintech in the last three years, while only 12 per cent listed increasing competition from fintechs, showing that collaboration is taking over from competition in this space. Through collaboration we will see the industry rise from strength to strength as we solve issues together for the good of the entire sector.” Liam Chennells, founder & CEO at due diligence fintech Detected
“We need a combination of two things. The first is that startups and scale-ups need to focus on fixing quantifiable problems with relentless obsession; the 10
|
Edition 47
other is that the teams responsible for innovation in big businesses need to build ways of working that allow them to share detailed requirements and a path to testing new solutions.” Susanne Chishti, CEO FINTECH Circle, investor & board member
“The financial and fintech sectors have a huge responsibility towards society overall. Fintech has the power to encourage innovation to make financial wellbeing more achievable for individuals and help businesses to make a real difference in people’s lives. The current cost of living crisis is having sweeping effects on the day to day lives of UK consumers. This will have an impact on financial firms ranging from the amount of money customers will have at any point in time to how SMEs will react to potential cash flow issues. That’s why in 2023 the priority is to create a financial system that caters to all – so financial inclusion is not a buzzword but starts at home where four million people in the UK still have no bank account. With more households running deficit budgets, we can be certain of a huge increase in late payments, mortgage defaults and bad debts that will drastically change the personal finances of millions for years to come. How financial services responds to this will be key to how our society develops into future. I am sure that the fintech sector can contribute to society’s safety net in this high inflationary environment making ‘Fintech for Good’ a reality.” Eduardo Martinez Garcia, CEO & cofounder of SaaS fintech platform Toqio
“Financial institutions need to keep
transforming their offerings digitally and expanding their services to remain competitive. With market circumstances changing so rapidly all the time, entrepreneurs leading the change in fintech are faced with continuous challenges when trying to build and scale their businesses. In this scenario, I’d say it is crucial for leaders to keep fostering creativity and diversity as these are the things that will help us move the industry forward in 2023 and beyond.” David Green is the CEO of Earnest, a fintech focused on making higher education accessible and affordable
“Fintech is an interesting industry with great momentum, but we will create true change only when we stop thinking in silos. I’m excited to see what 2023 brings in terms of unexpected collaboration across industries that incorporate fintech, and to see new ways of bringing financial services to products or companies people are already familiar with. I hope through this consumers gain accessibility to personal finance in a way that helps them understand how to set themselves up for financial success. Ultimately, a product where form meets function is a great one!” Silvia Mensdorff-Pouilly, senior VP at FIS Banking and Payments Europe
“In the last decade we have seen fintech come of age and begin to transform traditional financial services into an industry fit for the future. But we now find ourselves in a very different macro-economic environment and fintech has a crucial role to play in supporting financial health for everybody, including corporates, consumers and merchants, as
well as ensuring the financial health of the fintech industry itself. Finding sustainable and healthy business models, gaining competitive advantage through flexible user-friendly products, and bringing niche and futureready technology to the mainstream, are some of the critical elements to focus on. At the same time, we must balance a steady pace of innovative reform, and embrace comprehensive regulation to redefine traditional methodologies and encourage meaningful inclusion of all sections of society.” Nick Chandi, CEO of ForwardAI, a fintech providing aggregated access to accounting and business data and analysis
“Financial institutions and fintechs need to jointly educate small and medium businesses (SMBs) about the benefits of what fintech can do for them. Almost nine in 10 US consumers already use fintech apps and services, but there hasn’t been the same level of products, services, and adoption in the SMB space due to the complexity of the market. Many studies show that SMBs exhibit consumeresque behaviour and remain a vastly underserved market. They have enjoyed better services and products as consumers from the accelerated digitisation caused by the global pandemic, and the same level of products is now finally just catching up in the SMB space too. By educating SMBs on the value of fintech and closing the ‘expected experience’ gap, we can drive more adoption, more revenue, and more innovation. This positive loop can ultimately propel technological and financial advancement for SMBs and fintechs.”
➟