Fintech Advancements in this Era of Digital Disruption

Citigroup has just released a report projecting European and American banks are going to cut over 1.7 million jobs in the next 10 years. The reason… fintech advancements. This estimate represents close to 30% of current staff levels and is in addition to the 750K jobs that have already been shed since the financial crisis.

This report speculates that retail banking will be the most affected in Europe, which is contrary to the past few years where most cuts have been in the investment management side of the industry. Technologies focused on relationship management are key to this prediction putting intense pressure on the traditional branch model.

On demand access, mobile technology, video banking and others are poised to revolutionize the retail banking industry by taking the branch model and moving it to wherever the customer happens to be, any time, any where.

Competitive advantage is clearly linked to technology infrastructures in this era of digital disruption. New entrants offering on demand access and ‘frictionless’ alternatives are devoid of traditional channels and benefiting from surprising market share gains. Large operations can’t afford to follow, they must lead and digitize in order to capitalize on a US$1.3 trillion value at stake for the financial services industry.

We are undoubtedly on the cusp of a major digital disruption. We have seen relatively little technological innovation in lending at traditional banks even though we have seen massive investment in the area by Fintech disrupters. We’ve also seen China move 96% of eCommerce sales completed without a bank. The Citi report also highlights that in China, the peer-to-peer lending volume has reached beyond $66 billion. In the UK, that number is $5.4 billion and in USA it is $16.6 billion. The opportunities are obvious and technology will lead the evolution.