Things to look out for at Money20/20 Las Vegas
With the final presidential debate in Las Vegas wrapped up and the entourage moved on, a new show with an arguably larger supporting staff is heading into town. Now in its’ 5th year, Money20/20 will host over 10 000 guests over four days this week, eager to learn about how technology is changing digital financial services and meet the people behind it. So what are the things to look out for at this key fixture on the fintech calendar?
1. New markets being disrupted
Everyone is familiar with the changes that technology is bringing in traditional financial services categories such as lending - for example, the impact of Marketplace Lenders such as Prosper in the US - or payments, where BBVA Wallet and ApplePay have used the smartphone to make payments more convenient. What’s clear among the topics being covered at Money20/20 is that fintech disruption is spreading into new categories - for example, there’s an entire track at the event devoted to ‘Insurtech’ - technology changing the insurance industry - and another to legal and regulatory, or ‘Regtech’. Jay Reinemann, General Partner at Propel Venture Partners and a panellist at the event, said: ‘If you want the next big thing in financial technology, check out the new tracks at Money 20/20.’’
2. Surprising speakers
Money 20/20 not only has a knack of identifying new categories through its’ speaker slots - of which there are more than 500 - but of also attracting industry leaders and also those who bring a fresh perspective. So on Monday October 24 at 08 55 Pacific, Frank Abagnale - author of the book ‘Catch Me If You Can which was later turned into a film with Tom Hanks and Leonardo diCaprio - is talking about Identity Theft in the ‘Risk, Security and Fraud’ category. On at the same time as Mr Abagnale but on a slightly different topic is Simple’s co-founder - and head of BBVA’s Open API programme - Shamir Karkal, discussing OpenAPIs and the future of collaboration in financial services.
Other members of the BBVA family speaking are Propel’s Reinemann, talking on a panel on Investor perspectives: Future fintech outlook from Corporate and Institutional VCs while the other Simple co-founder and CEO Josh Reich can be heard on the subject of Digital Banking: Perspectives on the disruptors, the incumbents and the state-of-the-art . Karkal said: “An appearance on a Money20/20 panel is a great way of updating the people who matter on the progress of your product.”
Money 2020 Europe, Copenhagen, Denmark.
3. The geographic spread of digital financial services
With Money2020 moving to Asia in 2018 - there’s already a European show in Copenhagen in addition to Vegas - it’s clear that fintech is spreading globally. Its’ acceleration in the Far East is borne out by the quality of the presenters in Vegas. Presenting on Sunday on ‘The Rise of China Fintech’ is Ken Zheng from Lianlian Pay, and in a keynote on Monday, Douglas Feagin from Alipay is in discussion with CNBC’s Kayla Tausche. In total, 75 countries are represented at this year’s Money 2020.
4. Regtech
Compliance and regulation is rightly the bedrock of any financial services institution. However, for start-ups, they can be complicated and expensive and constitute a barrier to entry. So regulators are looking for ways to help new entrants while maintaining a level playing field - The FCA’s Project Innovate is a good example of this, and a new fintech segment has sprung up - regtech - to try and provide necessary compliance in financial services in cheaper and more efficient ways. Some banks have realised that their own compliance processes could be used by third parties. Recognising that this area is critical to the development of fintech, Money 2020 has a separate track on Regulation on the opening day, featuring leading industry figures such as Harvard University’s Jo Ann Barefoot and the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) Richard Cordray.
Money 2020 Las Vegas runs from October 23 - October 26. To follow the show on Twitter, use #Money2020