Whether you love it or hate it, money plays a crucial role in society. Additionally, how we spend money, who we put our trust in to manage it, and how we expect to be treated as financial clients are all changing. Four significant trends in particular will have an impact on the financial sector in the upcoming years.
There are various trends emerging these days that will work in future but we have selected The Four Biggest Future Financial Sector Trends and Everything you need to know about Future of Finance . Let’s look at those revolutionary trends:-
Digital currency
The exchange of money is now entirely digital. Through smartphone apps or by having your phone scanned in a store, you may now pay for goods and services with the touch of a screen. Using a “Smile to Pay” facial recognition payment service, consumers in China can even make payments by grinning. Physical money is rarely a factor these days.
Essentially, digital money refers to any form of money or payment that only exists electronically – and this can be as simple as a payment or money transfer that takes place online (typically facilitated by a traditional bank or credit card company) or as complex as an entire cryptocurrency like Bitcoin (which generally sits outside of traditional money institutions).
Digital money can therefore involve credit cards, smartphones, apps, online banking, money transfer platforms, and cryptocurrency platforms – but however the transaction occurs, the key factor is no tangible money changes hands. This trend was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, as people and businesses became reluctant to handle physical money, and contactless payments surged.
In other words, consumers are increasingly placing their trust in digital money instead of the traditional modes of payment that they have historically done so. And as a result, a plethora of new services are emerging that are poised to pose a threat to established providers of financial services (more on this coming up later). But let’s first think about the broader ramifications of digital money.
Future of Money: Will actual currency vanish?
Our connection with money is being permanently changed by digitization, and eventually, physical money may cease to exist. If you think it’s fanciful, keep in mind that over 600 different currencies have vanished in the past 30 years, and it’s not impossible that more will follow suit, either completely or through digital currencies. That also applies to well-known currencies. For instance, the European Central Bank is actively looking at the possibility of introducing a “digital euro.”
Another effect of the digitization of money is the growing connection between our personal data and our financial assets. Future financial transactions may contain even more of your personal information, such as whether you’re a student or a homeowner. For instance, money for goods and services may be automatically deducted based on your identity and payment systems could become largely undetectable. Although this is very revolutionary, there are significant hazards associated with data security and identity theft.
Growth of financial apps
Mobile payment apps and so-called “digital wallets”—typically app-based services that enable users to pay for products (for instance, via contactless payments) and transfer money to others—help to facilitate this new wave of digital money.
The most significant aspect of this trend is that many of these apps and services are being provided by tech behemoths and startups that were founded in the digital age, including Apple, Google, Samsung, and PayPal, rather than by conventional banks. The long-standing monopoly that traditional banks and financial service providers hold over money and payments is under danger from a new generation of fintech businesses that are powered by data and AI capabilities.
For instance, Venmo, which is owned by PayPal, processed $159 billion in payments in 2020, a 59 percent increase from the previous year. Consider how long it would take a conventional bank to experience that level of client growth. It’s incredible.
With businesses like Klarna, a buy-now-pay-later digital payment system well-liked by millennials, apps are also starting to infiltrate the area of unsecured lending. High street banks and other lenders will lose market share as a result of this once more.
Consumers expect more personalised and intelligent services.
Huge data streams on what customers really do with their money are being generated by the digitization of money. These data streams can be used to cross-sell other pertinent financial products and services in the future or to offer customers useful insights about their spending.
For instance, independent UK bank Metro Bank has a sophisticated tool called Insights that analyses customer spending habits and forecasts if a customer is likely to go over their credit limit before receiving their next paycheck or whether an unexpected expense could put them in the negative. In the twenty-first century, banking customers will increasingly want this kind of individualised, personalised service.
Customer intelligence was named as the most significant predictor of revenue growth and profitability in a PwC report on technology in finance because of how crucial it is to the industry. Customers demand these sophisticated services, so if traditional providers don’t deliver them, you can be sure that tech behemoths and startups that were built for the digital age will step in to fill the void.
