Discussion of the Blockchain Constantly Noisy, Fast Founder, Blockchain investor Chen Weixing even argued: With the help of the blockchain, "Wall Street will be replaced by Silicon Valley. This is a historical necessity and a human fortune."

Whether Wall Street will really be replaced by Silicon Valley, we have not yet known, but the new technology is changing the financial trend frequently. Regulators frequently shot, stopped campus loans, reorganization ICO, thoroughly cash loan. At the same time, technology companies and financial institutions are constantly blending into the financial ecology of technology-driven financial change.

In 2017, there are a large number of listed financial technology companies in China, such as Public Security Insurance, Interest Loans, Mortgage Loans, Credit Suisse 360 ​​and so on. Financial technology companies continue to sea, ringing the bell, so that 2018 is full of expectations. How can financial institutions innovate properly under the premise of compliance? How can regulation regulate effectively while nurturing innovation? Where will the industry release the next dividend?

Based on the heavyweight report 2018 Financial Technology Trends Prospect published by CBInsights, a well-known research institution in the United States, Tinto Business Review (ID: pintu360) conducted an in-depth study on the development of fintech in 2018 and summarized the following ten trends.

Trend-one Financial technology continues to deepen </ p>

The source of the image above is CBInsights. As we can see from the figure, the impact of financial technology has penetrated all aspects of the financial sector, including the following ten major areas:

1, the loan areas: peer-to-peer lending and alternative underwriting platform

2, blockchain: the company uses the blockchain for financial services

3, regulatory: audit, risk and regulatory compliance software

4, personal finance: the management of bills and tracking personal credit account tools.

5, Payment: Payment Processing, Card Developer, and Subscription Billing Software Tools.

6, insurance: alternative insurance, claims, distribution, and / or commission platform

Capital Markets: Financial Institutions Tools for Sales and Trade, Analysis, and Infrastructure

8, wealth management: investment and wealth management platform and analysis tools

9, currency exchange: international transfer and tracking software

10, mortgage: mortgage loans, digital and financing platform

Leading technologies such as cloud computing, internet of things, big data, biometrics, blockchain, and artificial intelligence have come to the threshold of large-scale industrialization, from lending to payments to the hottest ICOs of today.

The more mature part of these technologies can provide breakthrough technical solutions for the development of the financial industry and deeply solve the pain points in the traditional financial industry.

Trend two from single financial products to multi-financial products </ p>

For the past ten years, financial technology startups have targeted single, under-served financial products such as better UI, digital marketing and branding. Financial technology companies are now building a diversified growth model.

First, from a single product economy to a multi-product economy. Startups have broken the single product model and introduced new services to expand the customer's digital footprint. Second, start-up companies continue to use technology for product innovation. Focus on personalized startups Launch new products and designs to deliver services more efficiently and completely. Finally, open up new investment channels. Before the bank's release, startups are creating a new generation of investment platforms for new asset classes.

In January 2018, Credit Karma, a U.S. financial technology company, partnered with MetaBank to provide online refunds of up to $ 1,000. Users with no interest loans get prepayments with American Express prepaid car. Another stock exchange company called Robinhood intends to set foot in wealth management services.

Renaud, founder and CEO of Internet lending platform Upgrade, believes that "continuous bundled services will generate significant consumer product innovation."

Revolut is a personal finance application that allows customers to buy, hold and exchange currencies at a low price. In addition to applying for a bank license, Revolut added financial technology partners and cryptocurrency services in 2017.

Square's cash app, the mobile payment company in the United States, is the first app in the App Store's "financial" category. In late 2017, Square quietly launched Bitcoin payment functionality in its App. Driven by this news, the Bitcoin price rose as much as 11% to reach 7336.80 U.S. dollars.

Trends Three banks work with financial technology companies to develop their own products </ p>

In the past few years, banks have invested heavily in the financial technology sector. In the United States, banks including Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan are aggressively investing in financial technology start-ups in areas such as data analysis, infrastructure, alternative loans, and personal financial management .

In China, financial technology companies have enjoyed frequent cooperation with the traditional financial industry. In March 2017, China Construction Bank announced strategic cooperation with Alibaba and Ant Financial. Advancing CCB online credit card credit card business, as well as offline online channel business cooperation. In June, Liu Qiangdong, chairman of Jingdong's board of directors, and Yi Huiman, chairman of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, officially signed a comprehensive cooperation agreement. The two sides will launch all-round cooperation in such areas as financial technology, retail banking, consumer finance, corporate credit, campus ecology, asset management, personal joint accounts and even e-commerce logistics.

But one trend in the United States is that banks have instead started to launch their own financial technology services. By the end of 2016, the Gold Markers Market Marcus was officially launched at Goldman Sachs. Marcus's name comes from Marcus Goldman, co-founder of Goldman Sachs. According to available information, Marcus has issued more than $ 1 billion in loans since its inception, and the actual loan amount may be more than this The value is much higher. With Marcus backing up the trees and enjoying the cool breeze, unlike other banks that also do personal loans, Marcus does not have to worry about leaving the credit card business behind. Goldman Sachs also has extensive experience in assessing risk and applies this experience to Marcus.

For example, Morgan Stanley once scoffed at robotic customers and now launches Access investments, and they are still seeking financial tech talent to develop more tech new products.

Early financial institutions that support financial technology companies are now more likely to launch their own financial technology products. Banks have their own financial and resource advantages, choose to launch their own financial technology products, for start-ups is not good news.

Trend IV Wealth Management Will Become the Most Popular Financial Technology Sector in China </ p>

According to the report, China's total personal investable assets increased to 26 trillion U.S. dollars in 2016, which will bring tremendous opportunities to the financial technology sector. In 2017, the balance of ant finance has become the largest money market fund in the world.

Tencent also extended to the area of ​​wealth management. Following the acquisition of multiple financial licenses, Tencent now has obtained a fund sales license. January 2, Shenzhen Securities Regulatory Bureau approved the approval of Teng On Information Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. securities investment fund sales approval, approval of Teng Securities Investment Fund sales business eligibility.

Although Tencent officials said that not big and comprehensive Internet finance. In fact Tencent get more and more intensive drums of the financial license, quietly become the most fully licensed internet finance empire.

But in terms of venture capital, China's wealth technology is still a nascent category. As shown, funding for financial technology start-ups is still low.

Some start-ups allow Chinese investors to enter overseas securities markets. Tencent Cattle, a start-up invested by Tencent, has raised over $ 215 million to allow mainland China users to trade Hong Kong and US stocks using its smartphone software.

Tiger Securities, an Internet-focused brokerage in the US, provides a platform for Chinese investors to access their cross-border portfolio globally. The Tiger Securities investors are also great: founder of real fund Xu Xiaoping, the United States Mission Wang Xing and Huaxing Capital Angel Fund Jinfeng capital.

Startups are designing new models of wealth for Chinese consumers. Shanghai's start-up firm Jane Seven owns 300,000 WeChat users, focusing on financial videos and investment videos. She is a larger financial management community in China with 1 million subscribers, is a brand under Money Shop, focuses on female users, Focused on providing women with comprehensive financial services from learning exchange to investment practice.

While China's wealth management industry is still underdeveloped, some start-ups, such as NewBanker, want to provide independent wealth managers with technology products to help them capture costs, regulatory rules and product development.

Downing, Founder and CEO of Credit Suisse, concluded: "We are seeing profound changes in China's wealth management industry, from fixed-income investments to equity investments, from short-term speculation to long-term investments, from investing exclusively in China to global opportunities, From investing in a single product, from a single opportunity to comprehensive risk management and comprehensive asset allocation, from managing the wealth of this generation to thinking about succession planning. "

Trend Five blockchain brings new opportunities for finance </ p>

Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies surge attracted a large number of investors and start-up companies. The new blockchain project attracted a large number of big guys and leeks through its first coin issuance (ICO).

It is reported that in 2017 the platform for encrypting assets to convert currencies has more than $ 1 billion in revenue. In December last year, a trading program called Coinbase tops the list in the Apple Store. In November 2017, the program added 100,000 new users daily. In 2018, Coinbase plans to cater to larger investors. Its mission is "to make digital money investments available to all financial institutions and hedge funds in the world." Critics say this is in stark contrast to Coinbase's mission of establishing an "open financial system."

Ledger sales of hardware wallets, allowing users to store password assets. It is reported that in 2017, ledger revenue increased from 600 euros a year ago to the present 46 million euros. As winners emerge, blockchain startups will change their rhetoric. More than 2.6 billion U.S. dollars have been spent on equity financing for blockchain startups, though most companies do not get large numbers of users.

With the continuous development of blockchain technology, more and more companies will use this technology to invest and trade.

Abra, a bitcoin remittance company, once boasted that its business is global payments, but has recently shifted its investment direction to blockchain investments. Circle focuses on OTC, not money transfer. Circle originally claimed to be the mobile blockchain remittance and payment platform, but it has made a huge success in the OTC business, trading over $ 2 billion a month in crypto assets.

Trend 6 Financial Technology Infrastructure Becomes a Key Area of ​​Investment </ p>

The financial technology infrastructure mainly refers to the hardware facilities for financial operation, including the payment system, credit environment, anti-money laundering and the financial safety net composed of financial supervision, the function of the lender of the Central Bank, and the investor protection system.

The construction of China's financial infrastructure made significant progress in 2017, the payment system was continuously improved, the credit market development and social credit system construction continued to be promoted, and the protection of financial consumer rights and interests achieved remarkable results. These laid a solid foundation for the sound operation of the financial system.

Entrepreneurship in infrastructure efforts can not be underestimated, they help companies use cloud computing to reduce the cost of providing financial services and tools to customers. Some start-ups are taking a "pickpocket" approach that provides developers with the tools to help banks and financial professionals focus on customer data and services. Start-up companies use APIs to help developers adopt new financial products and services to increase their market time and reduce development costs.

Improving the infrastructure layer is the key to furthering financial development.

Trend Seven banks have deepened their investment in regulatory technology </ p>

For the first time in 2017, the central bank made a clear reference to a new concept: "RegTech." "FinTech can easily form a combination of financial and technical risks that create systemic risk, and artificial intelligence RegTech recognizes such risks more easily. Completely belong to imported goods, while the so-called regulatory technology (RegTech) is not yet a standard definition so far. However, according to the definition of FCA (UK Market Conduct Authority), which was originally listed as a separate sub-sector, the essence of regulatory technology is "Leveraging the latest technology to serve regulatory and compliance" is a niche segment that has expanded from the FinTech world.

The CBingsight report shows that venture capital has invested a total of $ 1.8 billion in RegTech's 176 deals from 2013 to the present. Banks such as Santander, Barclays and Goldman Sachs were among the first banks to invest in RegTech startups. Banks have invested in every aspect of RegTech, from identification and background checking software to blockchain and trade monitoring.

J. Christopher Giancarlo, chairman of the CFTC, said: "Regtech offers important opportunities for participants and regulators, and I think we are in the" early "part of this space but believe all stakeholders must do everything in their power to understand emerging technologies , Consider creatively integrating these technologies into finance. "

Trend Eight Insurance Technology Moving Backwards </ p>

Insurance technology start-ups continue to be a hot area of ​​financial technology investment in 2017. Global insurance technology transactions in 2017 increased by 16% over the same period of last year.

The largest transactions in 2017 come from financial insurance companies.

In 2017, Hong Kong's online personal finance platform CompareAsiaGroup completed a new round of financing of US $ 50 million led by IFC, a subsidiary of the World Bank. In addition to IFC, a new round of financing investors include Alibaba. The expanding middle class in Asia and the increasing popularity of the Internet have driven the demand for online financial products. For those looking for insurance policies, credit cards, loans or other wealth management products, CompareAsiaGroup provides them with price comparison services and management tools.

CompareAsiaGroup operates localized sites in several countries, including Singapore's SingSaver.com.sgCompareAsiaGroup has 500,000 active users in Singapore and has worked with several financial service providers. Partners at CompareAsiaGroup include Citibank, Allianz, HSBC and others.

As the victors emerge, the concentration of startups will fall short of funding. Startups are looking for more ways to enter the insurance arena.

Trend IX AI goes deeper into financial sciences </ p>

2017 is a year of artificial intelligence. Although some technologies have not been developed yet, many breakthroughs have been made in the fields of anti-fraud, unlocking, payment and authorization applications, as well as intelligent investment consulting. Based on artificial intelligence, deep learning technology and powerful data processing capabilities, intelligent investment consulting, intelligent investment research and financial applications such as knowledge maps are also emerge.

There are even practitioners worried that the development and rise of machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies and the development of automated analytical tools have threatened to replace data analysts and senior analysts in the financial industry. However, finance is a complex system. In a short time, it is difficult to completely replace artificial intelligence or machine learning. However, as long as the accuracy of face recognition increased by 1%, you can save the cost of several hundred million, which will become the key to winning the future of the industry.

Ten trends in the financial sector more radical </ p>

Anderson, Amazon's ALEX RampellGeneral partner, believes that "Amazon is the most powerful. If Amazon can help you reduce your debt or give you a bank account, you will buy more on Amazon." In the United States, Amazon has developed Out of a number of financial services platform.

More than 33 million users use Amazon Payments, and since 2011, Amazon lent to small businesses up to 3 billion U.S. dollars in loans. In addition, Amazon also has a cash deposit business and membership incentives.

But Amazon's efforts in the United States go a long way to global financial sciences with Tencent and Ant Financial.

Alipay has 520 million users, more than 330 million balance treasure users, ant gold service has 392 million users, sesame credit has 257 million users.

Tencent micro channel to pay as the starting point, Tencent will penetrate the future of financial products transactions. Including personal financial management, securities trading, fund sales, and even financial loans. To pay for the cut-off, WeChat payment gradually become the user's wallet. Tencent payment services to reach 600 million, Tencent Money Management broke the amount of 300 billion funds, the number of users exceeded 100 million.

Despite the large number of users, for giants such as Amazon, Ali and Tencent, the financial industry needs to make sustained efforts - technological innovations, taking pictures and marching overseas ... In 2018, the giants' disputes in the field of finance and technology will be intensified.