Overview

In this deep dive, we analyse the future vision of the finance industry and the technological adoptions facing the front, back and middle office. We are often asked about the impact of Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon on financial services. We explore the strategic chess pieces to understand the motivations and outcomes of the digitization of financial services. This publication provides strategic guidelines for financial incumbents, B2C and B2B startups, and high-technology companies competing in the Fintech economy. Key themes are banks-as-a- platform, Fintech startup funding and feasibility, and the “attention economy”.

Key Findings 

• Vision of industry in 2030. (1) The front office will see the rise of artificially intelligent software agents working with big-data ; (2) in the middle office, most work will be done by software, continuously ‘taught’ by human designers (3) the back office will see widespread distributed ledger adoption. 
   

• Financial firms vs. startups vs. high-tech firms – who wins? Depending on execution, the result can be Renaissance or Armageddon for financial incumbents. It is also essential to understand the “attention economy” which drives how high-tech firms will enter the industry.
   

• Global Fintech investment was at a record high in 2016 at $17.7 billion, with an increasingly large portion from Asia. Many start-ups will fail, yet there are plenty of unicorns with viable paths to success.

Table of Contents

About Autonomous Research

Vision of a Future Industry Structure

• Front office blueprint for 2030 including role of advisors, agents and brokers with the advent of automation

• Middle office blueprint for 2030 featuring breakdown of key issues such as human APIs, closed vs open technology and open source data

• Back office blueprint for 2030 with comparison between B2B and B2C interaction models between blockchains

Takeaways for Industry Participants

• Segmentation of high tech companies, Fintech start-ups and financial incumbents highlighting the difference between traditional and attention economy

• Overview of the implications of Bank as a Platform: Renaissance or Armageddon effects on business structure 

• Corresponding challenges and opportunities faced by Fintech start-ups and financial incumbents in front, middle and back office

Attention Economy: How to Understand High Tech

• Overview of the mindset of tech megafirms as they aim to garner attention as a relevant form of currency

• Metrics around time spent on media consumption across age-groups and type, relating to the concept of the attention economy

The Startup Path: Why They Grow?

• Quantifying Fintech venture capital investment and deals globally

• Details on the different risk factors and business structures of fintech startups compared to new businesses in a well defined sector

• Organizational structure of fintech startups and the regulatory frameworks faced in different areas

Research Path

• Our fintech research plan is to assess impact of each core theme across industries, addressing over $6 trillion of revenue

Engage with Autonomous

Financial service companies are transitioning from human driven revenue models to information technology driven revenue models. As part of our ongoing focus on this transition, and the core technology themes being expressed in finance, we have established Autonomous NEXT. The products and services are designed specifically for financial firms looking for strategic insight into the pace and path of the core themes shaping the financial services ecosystem.

Our services are suitable only for professional investors. You may purchase this analysis individually, or engage with us more deeply by contacting us here.