Technology
09/30/2016

Joining the FinXTech.com Advisory Team


team2.png

Greetings from the United Kingdom. I’m part of the FinXTech Advisory Group and will be writing brief updates here from time to time. You may not know me and so you can find out what I get up to over here and on my blog. In case you don’t want to do that, one of the advisors to President Obama called me “the most authoritative voice” in fintech anywhere, which is why I guess the guys at FinXTech asked me to come on board.

Conversely, why have I joined the FinXTech Advisory Board?Mainly because its membership is comprised of many of the fintech leaders that I respect in the United States from the largest financial institutions, leading investment firms, technology companies, service providers and government entities. FinXTech is not just another media company—it’s a platform for connection via the FinXTech.com website, conferences for networking and interactive brainstorming sessions for real world application.

FinXTech’s mission is simple: to connect those who are truly shaping the future of financial services. The fintech ecosystem consists of five distinct groups:

  • The leaders of fintech companies who are producing, researching and creating new technological solutions.
  • Financial institutions that are embracing, adopting and/or seeking to implement cutting edge advancements.
  • Service providers, consultants, advisors and lawyers who are guiding the regulatory, compliance and implementation processes.
  • The investor and venture capital communities that determine who and what might be the next best thing for financial services.
  • And the government voices, be it from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau or even the White House.

By establishing a group of advisors, FinXTech is able to set the course and agendas for their platform, based on the thoughts and feedback from some of the best and brightest in the industry—and me. So naturally, I joined, too—to be on the inside cutting edge, in addition to adding to it.

You probably already know a lot about fintech, although you may not know who is leading it. Is it Silicon Valley? Is it Wall Street? Is it London? Or maybe Singapore? In fact, financial technology is everywhere. During my travels—and I travel so much that when people ask me where I live, I usually say the British Airways executive lounge—I see every country with a financial focus creating a fintech focus. Oslo, Berlin, Zurich, Amsterdam, Tel Aviv, Dubai, Bangkok, Sydney, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Mexico City, S??o Paulo—fintech is happening in all of these places.

Why are so many billions of dollars being poured into these new technologies for finance?

The answer is that we are revolutionizing financial services through the Internet. For the past 50 years, bank technology has mostly been deployed for internal efficiencies and usage. Today, technology is creating external efficiencies, particularly through peer-to-peer networking. Apps, APIs, analytics, artificial intelligence, big data, blockchain, cloud, distributed ledgers, machine learning and the Internet of Things are changing everything. Everything is now networked and open sourced through marketplaces and connected platforms. This technological revolution has been bubbling for years, starting with the Amazons and Alibabas of the world, moving along to the Facebooks and Baidus, Tencents and Googles. Now we have the Ubers and Airbnbs, and everyone wants to know who will be the next PayPal or AliPay.

This is why fintech is so exciting, as we have major new players like Stripe and Square appearing almost overnight and gaining multi-billion valuations. There is no doubt that we’ve got it going on, and in my next few pieces here I’ll outline the key trends, players and developments.

For now, I wish you a big hearty British welcome to FinXTech. Glad you could make it and it’s good to be here.

Chris Skinner