Vuealta: Financial Services Industry Not Ready for Mobile Payments, Technology Disruption

The pace of advancement in mobile payments and other financial technology (fintech) issues has been staggering, even over just the last year. Trying to keep up with that kind of advancement has to be difficult for anyone, and a new study sent our way from Vuealta—a firm specializing in connected planning—made it clear just how difficult it is.

The study, titled “The Future of Financial Services: Planning for Every Eventuality”, noted that 52 percent of financial decision makers believe their leadership teams are not yet even convinced of the true impact of fintech’s disruption in their field. That’s a staggering point as it is, but it only got more telling from there.

The financial decision makers involved in the field cited several different technologies as being “most disruptive” to current operations. The leader was issues of regulation and compliance, who 45 percent expected to see the most impact from. Almost immediately following that was cybersecurity at 43 percent. Several other technologies also contributed to the landscape of change, including AI / machine learning at 31 percent, payments technology at 27 percent, and cryptocurrencies at 25 percent.

While there has been no shortage of new startups looking to take the field, it’s not a concern to many currently-operating firms. Just 11 percent cited new startups as the big risk for the next five years. Cybersecurity took top marks in that department for 42 percent of respondents, followed closely by political changes at 39 percent and regulations at 36 percent.

If there’s one thing the “Planning for Every Eventuality” study shows us, it’s that there are a lot of eventualities out there to try and plan for.  The fintech field is packed with alternatives, and therefore choices, which means that most will end up choosing the less-than-perfect choice out of the vast pile therein. While consolidation in the market through mergers, acquisitions and closures will help here, it’s still a very thick market to handle.

Yet to choose to stay out of the fray will help no one. Legacy solutions fall apart through sheer obsolescence, and those who did advance gain new market share from more satisfied customers. Fintech is waiting. Those who fail to make advances in this field are much more likely to lose the field altogether.