Tribe Payments, an issuer/acquirer processor and payment technology provider, has launched a new report predicting embedded finance – where Fintech becomes embedded non-financial specific products and services – will dominate the industry by 2030, changing market structures and business models.
The report, entitled “Fintech 2030: The Industry View”, is based on a survey of 125 fintech executives and contributions from 15 fintech industry leaders sharing their vision on the future of the market. Some contributors include 11:FS, Currencycloud, Moneyfarm, Plum, Thought Machine, and Wirex.
“Fintech 2030 is a detailed journey into the future of finance, giving us a glimpse into not only how fintech will change, but how it will change every market it touches,” said Alex Reddish, Chief Commercial Officer at Tribe Payments. “While every contributor has their own vision, the consensus is that fintech will continue to evolve, with innovation accelerating. And just as we no longer think of “online businesses”—because every business is online—embedded finance will become so ubiquitous that fintech as a category becomes less and less useful. The very nature of embedded means that fintech firms will need to partner, collaborate and integrate into the search for scale and success.”
Key findings from the report include:
- More innovation, more Fintechs, but less funding
- 86% of respondents see the next decade of fintech building on the first, with fintech innovation accelerating. Only 14% said that innovation and change has peaked or plateaued.
- Three-quarters of respondents state that there will be an increase in the number of Fintechs. And 37% said that the number of Fintechs is likely to double by 2030.
- Fintech funding is likely to change with nearly two thirds (60%) agreeing that investors will favour profitability over “moonshots”.
- Just over a third (38%) see banks becoming ‘dumb pipes’, like the relationship between a mobile operator and WhatsApp or Netflix.
- Less than one in ten thought that Big Tech firms have a chance of dominating the market completely. 34% said that Big Tech will become aggregators of bank and fintech services.
- Machine learning, IoT and automation will drive embedded finance
- The three most important technologies today – Open Banking, data analytics and blockchain – will not be the most important in 2030. According to the survey the three most important financial technologies in 2030 will be machine learning (71%), the internet of things (49%) and automation (40%).
Simon Taylor, Co-founder of 11:FS, said “Fintech is, on one hand, moving “down” towards becoming a platform, and on the other hand, moving “up” towards ever more niche services and specialisms. While it shifts vertically, it is also moving horizontally in terms of the customer segment. For instance, challenger banks started at the consumer, digitally savvy end of the market.
“The question now for fintech is how to go from the creative teenage phase to the productive and profitable phase. Do they move down to be a platform? Up to niches and higher per-customer revenue? Or move left and right in terms of product offering? Regardless of the path taken it is my firm belief that fintech is only 1% finished, and the next decade is going to be its most exciting and challenging yet.”
