Here’s how the FinTech landscape looks like for 2023

By Puja Sharma

Mambu, the SaaS cloud banking platform, has launched its partner predictions report for 2023. The report highlights the top finance trends predicted to help businesses thrive, amidst the current volatile macroeconomic environment.

Industry leaders from across FinTech and financial services including AWS, Backbase, Deloitte, Google Cloud, and many more have predicted the trends set to shape the industry in the coming year. They examine the changes the industry must expect and explore how financial players should respond, to ensure they don’t get left behind.

In 2023, we expect to see many of these trends accelerate. Embedded finance is rapidly gaining momentum and big tech’s banking interest is increasing pressure on legacy players. As consumers’ expectations for digital experiences continue to grow, financial players must rise to meet them – though digital transformation will come with compliance and regulation challenges. Across the coming year, Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) is set to evolve and overcome some of its previous limitations while in the world of digital payments, it looks like ‘super apps’ are here to stay.

Rachel Hunt VP of Corporate Strategy & Growth Volante said, “The proliferation of consumer payment technology has lit a fire under financial services providers, and their business customers now expect more. A key lever for change will be taking advantage of the innovation that is happening around faster payments globally, and in the US and Europe in particular.”

The banks that can launch new real-time services to corporates will benefit from growth and increased market share. Volante sees the convergence of the different payment types, and the ability to orchestrate payments towards the least cost or fastest routing based on customer preferences, as a key capability to move ahead of the pack. Payments-as-a-Service done right enhances the customer experience by gaining access to real-time innovation.

Emma Scales Managing Director Publicis Sapient, “Data will also be central to building a competitive banking service; our recent Global Banking Study revealed that 38% of SEA banks are prioritizing the ability to obtain a richer understanding of their customers via better use of data and analytics.”

Data measurements and analytics, followed by technology (with 44% of SEA-based banks looking to adopt a modern cloud-based core banking architecture), were cited by just under half of the banks in SEA in their top 3 traits of what makes a digitally innovative bank. Contextualisation and hyper-personalisation will be key win themes in the market. This transformation will not only drive traditional banks towards more inclusive composable financial products and services but also do it with sustainability in mind, alongside a strategic focus on ESG to drive competitive advantage

ESG and ethical impact finance will also be a key area of focus for finance as the climate crisis intensifies. Encouragingly, 2023 will see historically underserved consumer groups and businesses gain greater attention from industry players as they begin to recognise the untapped potential of these groups. As the market grows more competitive SMEs stand to win big in the battle for their custom. It’s an exciting time for the financial industry, despite the troubling macroeconomic forecast. Let’s take a closer look at what finance will look like in 2023.

In response to the economic downturn in the wake of the pandemic, Mambu’s global network of partners predicts seven trends that will shape the financial landscape in 2023.

Fernando Zandona, Chief Technology and Product Officer of Mambu said: “The financial landscape has been extremely turbulent for some time. Economic uncertainty, BigTech companies redefining the financial services space, FinTechs looking to be more nimble and efficient, banks looking to reinvent themselves, a lot is going on. But no matter what, it is going to be the end customers who decide which players win and continue in the market, and these customers will favour those who move fast and innovate. Embracing technology will be one of the top approaches that financial services will need to survive and thrive.”

Key Trends:

• Big tech in banking: Big tech moving into banking will force banks to drive digital transformation. Customers now have higher expectations for their digital experiences, so traditional banks need to partner with technology providers to offer more competitive banking services
• ESG and ethical impact finance: This shift will not only drive traditional banks towards more inclusive composable financial products and services but also delivering with sustainability in mind for the benefit of their customers
• The future of payments: Rather than integrating their products into external platforms, banks should focus on creating their interfaces and making them more engaging, more relevant, and more interesting to increase brand loyalty