London, UK. 1st December – FinTech Connect, the UK’s fintech show, has shared its 2021 Industry Survey. With insights collected from over 100 FinTech executives from across the industry ecosystem in Q4 2021, the report reveals the biggest challenges felt and opportunities anticipated by the today’s leaders.
These findings come just ahead of FinTech Connect’s virtual event, taking place from 1st December to 2nd December. Registration for this event is still open, and can be found here.
“To say that 2021 has provided the industry with some unexpected crossroads would be an understatement,” says Laurence Coldicott, director of content at FinTech Connect. “Financial providers have had to magnify their digital transformation efforts tenfold or explore different strategic options to not only keep up and grow with the demands of consumers, but to make it through such an intense period of disruption unscathed.”
For almost half of FinTech leads (49%) budget was a blocker to digital change in 2020 but things are looking better. Today, only 6% of FinTech leads believe budget is a barrier to implementing a strong digital transformation strategy, which is considerably less to other factors such as internal concerns around cybersecurity and fraud (27%).
Other key findings from FinTech Connect’s 2021 Industry Survey include:
- Adaption tops the agenda for the coming year. 33% of respondents saying change management is the priority in the next 12 months
- Challengers to be abandoned by consumers. 39% of respondents say consumers will return to trusted high street brands.
- AI & cloud lead for deployment – but RPA and blockchain are closing in. 31% say they are deploying blockchain on mass, while RPA climbs up the implementation agenda.
- The covid effect most felt in culture. 41% of participants said that the pandemic caused a cultural shift in which perception of their business changed.
- Blockchain is on the up. Disillusionment clearing with positive signs of maturity and implementation.
- Banking on Baas and embedded finance. The impact of BaaS and Embedded Finance on the fintech landscape will be overwhelmingly positive over the next 18 months.
- Paris rivalling London for fintech crown. Battle to be capital is a two-horse race, with Paris closing in on London.
- Supply chain woes spare most fintech players. Majority of FS organisations have been shielded from the effects of the supply chain crisis.
- Pan-European hopes to be dashed by consolidation. Fintechs with ambitious plans for European expansion most at threat from incumbent M&A.
The survey was compiled and anonymised by FinTech Connect and analysed along with commentary from members of the FinTech Connect Advisory Board. Full report available here.
These key insights, and more, will be discussed further at FinTech Connect’s Virtual Event. Panels and speaker events will centre around DX Connect, PayTech Connect, Blockchain Connect, and Regtech & Security Connect. Each area will feature key speaker sessions and panel discussions with experts in their respective fields discussing everything from the role of blockchain in the global supply chain, to how corporations are embracing B2B payments in an ever-changing market. Speakers include:
- Ashok Vaswani, CEO consumer banking and payments, Barclays
- Russell Pert, director, head of industry, financial services and travel, Facebook
- Marijke Nijhoff, head of product – digital payments, IKEA Group
- Andrew Murphy, group operations director, John Lewis Partnership
- Alberto Cozer, senior global digital innovation manager, Nestle
- Arka Sircar, director of strategy, TSB Bank
- Vinayak Thakur, group product manager, risk and payments, Uber
- Alison Harwood, head of London branch, Varengold Bank
Comment on this article below or via Twitter: @VanillaPlus OR @jcvplus
