Part 1: will the emergence of the Fintech Industry and the subsequent disruption really change the world of Finance?

This is the first of a series of 3 articles about FintTch written by Torsten Miland, Managing Partner AIMS Denmark, Global Head of Financial and Professional Services Practice of AIMS International

Imagine if you had decided you wanted to build a bank. Where would you start? Would you acquire a big head office and a number of places where you could place offices for clients? Or would you – more likely and smarter – start a bank by building an app?

This dilemma is what faces modern banks today. Many of them still have branches and maintain a physical relationship with their clients – even if they know that most of the clients are really not interested in visiting the bank to do their banking.

The needs from both individuals and companies for financial services has changed. Why would you want to borrow money from a bank, when you via an app can get the loan from the community around you? Why would you call your broker and ask him to invest for you, when you can cut out the middleman and do it yourself from an app?

And these are some of the reasons that FinTech is growing at a phenomenal rate.

Young companies are taking over from old financial institutions

One of the most successful FinTech companies in the world, SaxoBank, is no more than 15 years old. Most Fintech companies are much younger than that. And at the moment we are seeing new FinTech companies being established at a very high rate.

It is estimated that global investment in financial technology increased more than twelvefold from $930 million in 2008 to more than $12 billion in 2014.

According to London & Partners (The official promotional company for London) more than 45.000 people work in London in the FinTech industry – a number bigger than anywhere else in the world.

PricewaterhouseCoopers expects that, in just 4 years from now, 25% of the global insurance- and asset management business will have moved from the traditional banking institutions to FinTech-players.

What is a FinTech company?

Financial technology companies are IT start-ups or already established technology companies trying to replace or enhance the usage of financial services of incumbent companies. FinTech companies come in many varieties and sizes. They are often headed by quite young people with a brilliant mind and a head for business.

The “old” financial institutions are increasingly trying to either acquire these start-ups or actually fund them at an early stage.

 

FinTech is innovating within applications, processes, products or business models and the potential for doing things in a new way are endless. The areas FinTech usually is believed to cover are:

  • Crowd lending/crowdfunding/fundraising
  • Blockchain/Bitcoin
  • Payment
  • InsurTech
  • Data Management
  • On-line wealth management
  • Personal finance

Examples of FinTech companies and their solutions:

 

Company

 

 

Product / Solution

 

Remarks

Adyen Payment platform system for e-commerce
Affirm Instant loans Finances purchases with instant loans at interest rates of 0% to 30%.; based in San Francisco
Algomi Bond trading Honeycomb bond-trading information system; London
Braintree Payments processor Online payments processor for consumer apps including AirBnB and Uber; San Francisco
EquityZen Pre-IPO solution Connects employees at pre-IPO companies looking to sell stock with prospective buyers; New York City
Fundera Loan OTC Small-business loan marketplace allows borrowers to compare terms from 28 lenders; New York City
Motif Market Data provider Enables investors to design, share and buy themed ETF-like portfolios (Motifs), San Mateo California
Ripple Money transfer facilitation for banks Allows banks to transfer funds in any currency in real time; San Francisco
Robinhood Trading App Commission-free stock trading app; Palo Alto, California


In one week we will publish the next article in the series about Fintech – read about why FinTechs are both a problem and an opportunity for the established Finance Sector.