FinTech Genie 2020

The Crowdsourced FinTech Wish List 2020

What happens when you solicit your friends for what is on their fintech wish list? You open the floodgates, just like you when you ask your kids what they would want for the holidays. So what are our collective asks from the fintech genie, the generous one who grants more than just three wishes? Here’s what we would like to see. 

FinTech Genie 2020 speaks!

[1] True diversity and inclusion

Things are looking pretty grim on the gender diversity front. According to World Economic Forum’s latest Global Gender Report 2020, it will take 257 years to close the economic gender gap, even more than the 202 years it predicted in 2018. We would like to think that as a society, we have moved beyond talking about the need for (and advantages of) gender diversity. But it would seem that we still have an awful lot of work to do.

Let’s start with events that drive conversations. We need a culture change across the entire fintech and financial services conference circuit. We need true diversity – not tokenism – in our ecosystem. How better to achieve that than leading by example, at the world stages where people come together to listen, learn, and engage?

We want to see female and minority-led Fintech unicorns. If we want the industry to change the world, it must address the needs of the full spectrum of humanity. It is the job of every person in every room, every day of the year, to make meaningful changes; the onus is on all of us to make change happen.

We want to see a more substantial increase in funding for nascent female, or minority/marginalized founders, or mixed groups of founders addressing the needs of these consumers. Venture funding is very much a relationship game; and relationship is based on trust, which in turn is based on familiarity. To drive impactful change and increase deal flow for minority or women-owned startups, we need more venture capitalists from diverse backgrounds.

Diversity should not be limited to gender or ethnicity only. To foster real innovation and to address societal challenges, we need to ensure we have diversity of age, education, and social economic backgrounds in our teams and in our solutions. 

[2] Real solutions for real problems

We need more intergenerational solutions in the marketplace. The way we live, work, and retire has changed; consumers (especially the sandwiched generation) need products that can address the longevity and caregiving challenges that many face today, brought about by unprecedented shift in demographics.

We also need products that can address some of the urgent challenges that we have in today’s world, including the growing economic inequality in our society and how hard it is to get to a secure financial future. It is expensive to be poor.

Beyond Gen Z, can we have more FinTech or InsurTech solutions for adults with assets? Once we are settled, with kids and a house, how do we get better insights and help to make sure we can get to the finish line? How are companies saving customers in this very dynamic and uncertain world? How are we serving real needs for everyone’s reality?

[3] Checks and balances

In the era of smartphones and connected devices, we are leaving digital trails in everything that we do. We need to maintain checks and balances on how/when we are tracked – whether in the name of security or marketing – and how the data is used. And we must address the question: “Who owns the data”?

On another tangential topic on checks and balances – as we continue our march towards a digital society, we must ensure that we are not alienating those who still rely on cash, particularly immigrants who may not have other means of payment; or those who prefer face-to-face interactions, particularly those who may not be as comfortable with technology (or simply prefer the human touch).

[4] Stop bashing the poor

Should welfare recipient’s income be managed, as in the case in Australia? As Chris Gledhill argued, are we going down the slippery slope of financial censorship with such measures?  

While we might have drastically reduced extreme poverty globally, we are experiencing increased inequality in developed economies. We need more responsible capitalism and increased social safety net to ensure those less fortunate are not being left behind. After all, it is expensive to be poor.

[5] Rethink legislation

Governance and regulations are important; but we also need clear rules and guidelines that can safeguard the financial services ecosystem while encouraging innovation and competition by fintech startups.

While we are at it, can we have a new Community Reinvestment Act that prioritizes financial health? CRA regulations are about more than just access, more than simple fairness, and far more than credit. Let’s make sure regulations ensure we are serving the financial needs of every community.

[6] Sustainable finance

Time has passed for conversations on climate crisis; we must build climate-friendly use cases in fintech, and start preparing for the impact of climate change on business.

We must embrace more solutions that help customers understand the implications of where financial institutions invest and add additional transparency to all transactions to understand our personal impact to ensure a more sustainable future. 

[7] Focus on people

We get it – metrics are important. From ROI to influencer rankings, we are a society obsessed with numbers, and more importantly, how well we perform compared to our peers. But before we lose our identity in numbers and what define us as uniquely human, can we have a new paradigm that can better represent our social values? After all, we are all in it together.

As the financial services industry changes and contracts and the number and makeup of banking jobs shift, what are we doing to ensure that our employees are retrained, reskilled, and have future employment opportunities? The future of work looks very different than today, and we must all prepare for it. This includes banks understanding their role in society and their commitment to their work forces. 

[8] Rethink education

How are we living in 2019 and financial literacy is still not taught in every high school – before kids are lured to sign up for credit cards? It is time to change that – and ensure every child has a basic understanding on how to manage money.

As we are living and working longer, we need to continue to upskill ourselves as well to stay relevant. We need to rethink how education is delivered, what is being discussed tangentially (for example, governance and ethics), and how life-long learning is perceived. 

[9] Packaging and beyond

As much as we like to think fintech startups attract customers only because of their shiny UI, it is not always about the packaging. There is a lot that financial institutions can do with the data that they have. Would it be wishful thinking on our part to hope that they can finally create something useful for all of us? And would banking a la carte be in the works?

Let’s develop an open banking and open data standard that can be leveraged by the entire global banking system. This would include transferable identity across borders and accounts that limited costs of services like remittance to increase levels of inclusion.

[10] Fun with work and learning

And to round up our epic wish list: we want an educational road trip around the world, with stops at smaller cities to share our fintech stories and exchange ideas with local communities. Innovation happens when we cross pollinate ideas and develop a deeper sense of empathy for others. We will likely find that we are more alike than we thought. 

Speaking of, we would love to see a bigger, better, and bolder Fintech Talents Festival in 2020! Who doesn’t love good music and craft beer while having good conversations? Let’s put the social back into social, as Danielle Guzman would say!

Our friend, Chris Gledhill, has also published a list of discussion topics for fintech conferences and podcasts for 2020. Read more here for good insights. 

On behalf of the Unconventional Ventures and Rhetoriq teams, we hope you enjoyed this year’s fintech wish list. We wish you and your family a very happy holiday. 

Tune in for this week’s Rhetoriq podcast episode via iTunes and Spotify, where Arun, Bradley, and Theo talk about what’s on their wish list for 2020. Will we be naughty or nice? Find out here!

See more by Theo here.

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