Finance Monthly August 2019 Edition

WHAT’S DISRUPTING THE INDUSTRY? TOP TRENDS FROM LONDON FINTECH WEEK: Now in its sixth year, London FinTech Week once again brought together some of the leading figures in the financial sector to discuss the latest global FinTech trends. As expected, this year’s event provided plenty of food for thought with Lord Anthony St John sharing his prediction that in 20 years’ time, FinTech will account for all financial services. While it remains to be seen if he’s right, it’s certainly an interesting concept. The event also highlighted some of the key trends likely to disrupt the FinTech sector in the next year. CHATBOTS In a matter of years, the use cases for chatbots have increased dramatically going from only being capable of completing very basic tasks, such as answering FAQs, to initiating actions on their own. Consequently, chatbot technology is likely to completely disrupt the way banks interact with their customers which will have a tremendous impact on the way banks operate. In fact, Juniper Research estimates that the operational cost savings from using chatbots in banking will reach $7.3 billion globally by 2023, up from an estimated $209 million in 2019. Additionally, it is expected that there will be a growth of nearly 3,150% in successful banking chatbot interactions between 2019 and 2023, while Gartner predicts that by 2020 consumers will manage 85% of their total business interactions with banks through FinTech chatbots. Thanks to advances in chatbot technology, banks will be able to streamline their operations, reduce service costs, improve their customers’ experience and be able to serve more people, more quickly. Russell Bennett, CEO of Fraedom www.fraedom.com 42 www.finance-monthly.com FINANCIAL INNOVATION & FINTECH - LONDON FINTECH WEEK