Fintech trends in 2022 with Plaid, OCR Labs, Savana and Clausematch
This month at Fintech Times our focus turns to reflection as we look back at developments over the past 12 months. 2022 has certainly been a challenging year for anyone with global economic activity experiencing a severe slowdown, with inflation higher than in decades.
We’ve reached out to our community of fintech CEOs and leaders to share their thoughts on this year’s big fintech trends. Today we bring you insights from Plaid, OCR Labs, Savana and Clausematch.
Plaid
Ripsy Bandourian became Europe’s first leader of Plaid – the open banking network that powers digital financial experiences – in April 2022. Here, Bandourian looks at how consumers are using fintech to tackle financial challenges. As well as how expectations for trust, privacy and regulation are developing.
“The past year has brought significant economic uncertainty, with people around the world wondering how they will manage. Ours last 2022 Fintech Impact Report unsurprisingly found that people in the UK are very concerned about the state of the economy, with 41 per cent saying they have little or no confidence – with a further 83 per cent citing the cost of living crisis as their main financial worry.
“Despite this concern, fintech has proven its value to consumers once again when they need it. 84 percent of UK consumers use fintech to better manage their finances and take back control. Tough economic times often result in serious shake-ups in approaches to mainstream finance processes, with people looking for new ways to manage their money, save more and protect their future in whatever way they can.”
OCR Labs
Russ Cohn is managing director international at OCR Labs Global, a digital ID verification company. Cohn is a business builder who advises founders and their management on their growth and operational strategies. He talks about the growth of innovative payment trends, as well as the increased risk.
“I have noticed an increase in opportunities for consumers to use financial services, such as buy now pay later (BNPL), e-wallets, crypto and other less traditional forms of payment.
“With this has come the need for more regulation, which drives a need for more oversight from regulators.
“In difficult economic times, we see an increase in consumer and business fraud – and with the current challenging global economic environment, we are seeing more forms of fraud escalating in almost every country in the world.”
Clause match
Evgeny Like-headed is the founder and CEO of Clause match, which helps regulated organizations bring compliant products to market. Likhoded highlights a significant push from the government regarding ESG (environmental, social, governance) policy for financial services.
“By 2022, many banks will start asking for ESG policies, procedures and controls for their fintech providers. We saw many fintech SaaS companies start to provide proof of ESG compliance.
“Also this year, we saw more and more individual governments evaluating crypto regulations. Meltdowns like the FTX crash and others affected consumers, and that has spurred even more pressure on cryptocurrency companies to comply. It’s a positive development for the safety of the industry .
“Another trend we have seen is that some smaller fintechs are buying software to comply with regulations. Even in our own area, the banks and fintechs that were not interested in a solution several years ago are now looking to buy our product. The message is true: It is no longer possible to comply with regulations manually.
“Unfortunately, in 2022, we see consolidation in the market due to the concerns of a looming economic downturn. It is to be expected; even good companies struggle to raise money. They end up either merging or consolidating, and we’ll probably continue to see that trend in 2023. The market slows down and investment slows down. It’s a shame that some really good companies weren’t able to raise.”
Savannah
Emily Steele is president and CEO of Savannah, which builds financial software for banks and fintechs. Steele, former president of Temenos, North America, has more than 20 years in the banking software industry.
“In 2022, we saw a continued move towards core modernization and adoption of cloud technologies in banking. Increased acceptance of open banking and data sharing in the industry has also led to advances in API banking.
“Digital banking (historically defined by the digital consumer app) is now considered table stakes for a financial institution. But as banks have eagerly launched new digital consumer apps over the past few years – new silos were formed in the process, and the unification of systems between bank-assisted and self-service consumer channels was effectively eliminated.
“Banks now face the challenge of removing these back-end and front-end silos to increase operations and ensure channel consistency.”
