Its difficult to put this into empirical terms but it sure seems like the pace at which the world is spinning up new financial technologies has accelerated to be almost blinding. We get a view to a huge amount of press release, announcement and kickoff information every week and, at least anecdotally that stream of information has gotten both faster and fuller (some people might call it a torrent) to the point where we, as a news organization, decided it was time to devote both time and space to the topic.
But this isn't just about the volume of information. Some of these innovations constitute minor revolutions in the way money and value are even defined - much less processed.
Sidenote: according to Statista, there are 5686 fintech startups live in the Americas, 3582 in EMEA and 2864 in APAC countries.
We're making a commitment to elevate the visibility of the companies, the people and the developments in fintech that have application within customer loyalty. Here are some of the trends we will be paying particular attention to (special thanks to CB Insights for their vast fintech expertise):
2018 TRENDS TO WATCH
- Fintechs unbundling leads to rebundling
- European fintechs will expand their global footprint
- Banks forgo partnering in favor of fighting fintech with fintech
- Wealth management will become the hottest fintech sector in China
- Latin America and Southeast Asia will see strong fintech growth
- More companies will look to sell pickaxes amid cryptoasset speculation
- Capital markets fintech infrastructure becomes a focus area for investment
- Banks deepen their partnerships with regtech
- Insurance tech investment moves to the back-end
- Amazon is primed to get more aggressive in fintech — outside of the US
We're also making a commitment to participate, on a deeper level, in the various communities and events in fintech. To wit, we are reporting live, today, from what is being billed as the first blockchain loyalty event in the world. Look for our posts on our LinkedIn and Twitter with hashtag #loyaltylive.
