And we’re kicking off the week with new analysis and opinions on fintech with new finance space for 2023, payments, crypto, fintech stocks and more. Dive into the latest fintech insights and have a great start of the week!
Will BNPL thrive or fail in high interest, high inflation market? (Fintech Gobal)
Buy now, pay later (BNPL) providers have thrived in a low interest and inflation market. As the market shifts the other way, will BNPL be in a fight for survival? With the appealing offer of short-term loans with no/low interest rates, BNPL providers have boomed over the past few years. A recent report from ResearchAndMarkets.com claims that the BNPL market was valued at $141.8bn in 2021 and will grow at a CAGR of 33% until 2026. Similarly, a report from Juniper Research claims there will be over 900 million BNPL users by 2027, rising from 360 million in 2022. However, the financial landscape has shifted over the past year and there is now high inflation and interest rates. Read more
Google just took the wraps off its long-awaited ChatGPT rival: Meet Bard (Business Insider)
Less than a month after the artificial-intelligence chatbot ChatGPT was introduced to the world, Google’s management issued a “code red” over the technology. Amid the threat that the buzzy new tool posed to Google’s search business, CEO Sundar Pichai redirected several teams at the company toward developing and launching the company’s own AI products. The company also said it planned to unveil 20 new AI products this year and also demo a version of Google Search that included AI chatbot features. On Monday in a blog post on Google’s website, Pichai unveiled Google’s Bard AI service, which he described as “an experimental conversational AI service.” In other words, it’s Google’s new competitor to ChatGPT. Pichai said Bard would be opened up to “trusted testers” starting Monday and would be made widely available to the public in the coming weeks. Chatbots like ChatGPT and Bard are trained on enormous amounts of textual data. Read more
How is emerging technology transforming the banking sector? (Fintech Magazine)
The fintech industry has experienced rapid global expansion as banks seek to modernise in the midst of evolving laws and regulations. As we look to 2023, many banks will partner with agile fintechs and turn to the cloud to develop new products and services to keep up with today’s digitally savvy customers. To unleash the full potential of these collaborations there will be challenges to overcome. For established banks it will be essential that fintech partners do not introduce systemic risk to their supply chains – especially as regulatory oversight grows. To help navigate the changing landscape, adopting a hybrid cloud approach, including the use of industry-specific clouds with built-in security and compliance controls, can support the secure modernisation the banking industry craves. In the year ahead, fintech should partner with established technology providers to explore the adoption of industry cloud platforms that help remove barriers within partnerships which restrict agile innovation. Read more
The impact of crypto and DeFi on the payments industry (The Paypers)
In a recent interview, Douwe explained why payment professionals should pay attention to the development of crypto and why ignoring it may result in missed opportunities. According to Douwe, the change brought about by crypto will primarily happen behind the scenes, much like the transformation of the telecom industry from analog to digital through VOIP in the early 2000s. Although the user interface and financial products won’t change much for end-users, the underlying payments infrastructure will undergo significant transformation. However, Douwe acknowledges that regulatory uncertainty is holding back the wider adoption of crypto payments, particularly among institutions. Read more
How More Women Are Entering the Coding Industry (The Fintech Times)
Computer programming is not just integral to the smooth running of fintech, but it also forms the baseline of digital transformation. The dial for female representation in tech has shifted in the right direction in recent years. The latest ONS labour force survey highlighted how more than 41,000 women joined the tech industry between 2020 and 2022, confirming that the gender gap is really closing. In 2020, women made up 15 per cent of programmers, software development professionals and web design professionals, and that figure has now increased to 18 per cent as of 2022. However, the company’s study reveals that, as of now, only one woman will be qualified for every 115 tech roles by 2025. Read more
What is the current state of crypto tax reporting? (Fintech Gobal)
Despite the rising usage of cryptocurrency, regulations are still quite bare and confusing. Principal to this is crypto tax reporting, which some countries are setting rules for, before even clarifying taxation laws. This came from a new webinar hosted by Regnology, a software provider of regulatory reporting framework. The panel was chaired by Regnology product manager Eva-Maria Than and was joined by Regnology product advisor Fabio Schiess, eToro head of tax compliance and operations Yitzhak Zahavy and Dune Consultants managing director Jessalyn Dean. The panellists discussed the current issues surrounding crypto assets tax reporting and how the industry can turn the challenges into opportunities. Read more
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