Financial Sector Innovations: Trends for the Future
It’s almost hard to believe that we’re now a quarter of the way into the new century. The past 25 years have seen our devices shrink from clunky grey plastic boxes to sleek supercomputers that look more like jewelry than office equipment. And even these devices are gradually evolving from items we carry to items we wear.
If there is a trend to observe, it’s that these devices are becoming ubiquitous and transparent. Moreover, they make all things possible and extend our reach in ways that people even 30-40 years ago could scarcely imagine.
As a company that has immersed itself in these technological developments for decades, striving to bring the very bleeding edge to our clients in financial services, we find this moment in time tremendously exhilarating and pregnant with all manner of possibilities. So, in the following article, we would like to share some of the developments and future trends that we’re most excited about and have been actively exploring with and for our customers.
Personalized finance
From its very inception, the information age held the promise of a completely personalized experience in all domains. Rather than carefully curated information broadcast linearly in a one-size-fits-all manner, it offered the possibility to go out there onto the Web and find precisely what one was looking for (and eventually for what one was looking for to find one!). This held true for everything from news and social commentary to music, film, and other creative disciplines.
We believe that personalized finance is one of the logical high points of this process. As we’ll see below when we explore the blockchain/cryptocurrency revolution, personalized finance takes the logic of the information age, but extends it way beyond data, to value. Where there was less at stake in an online world limited to just the sharing of information, the Internet of value becomes a superhighway where capital can flow almost frictionlessly to the areas where it is required the most. Great ideas that would have previously languished in obscurity can now be funded and made a reality by precisely the people who care about those ideas the most. The idea of voting with your dollar reaches its zenith when people can band together collectively and make things happen.
Personalized finance, or open finance as it is also known, is a movement that has forced banks to adapt their products and services to the information age. Otherwise, they risk becoming obsolete as a new wave of agile, data-driven Internet banks emerges to offer a host of services only possible in the online age.
Instant peer-to-peer transfers, 24/7 access to foreign exchange and other capital markets, and even the reduction of fees and other financial kickbacks. Compare these to the narrow window during the business day in which previous generations were forced to conduct their banking in person and you can see what a revolution this movement has been. When you add in the enormous amounts of data available to financial services providers in the online realm, it becomes possible to reach your customers on their own terms, informed by their own habits, with offers and services that are perfectly suited for them.
And this is just the beginning, at Devexperts we’ve been extending this logic to the notion of personalized financial services that go way beyond banking. Where bricks and mortar financial institutions were the old gatekeepers in the world of banking. Wall Street has had to open its doors to entirely new generations of traders who have only ever seen a trading floor in the movies. Our technologies are empowering innovative financial service providers to offer the kinds of trading services at scale that only a few short years ago were reserved for the privileged and well-connected.
Artificial intelligence
The above innovations in the area of personalized finance are supercharged in the era of AI and machine learning. Sophisticated algorithms can learn from the habits of users and pre-emptively provide exactly what they need before they ever get on a live chat to request it from human agents. The result is a far higher caliber of service that even small teams can now offer simultaneously to a much wider client base. The savings to be made from such an approach are truly staggering, all while empowering your human teams to almost operate on God Mode.
It still sounds like science fiction to many financial service providers who have yet to explore what these technologies can offer, but we have been able to show and prove these ideas to our clients. Devexa, our AI chatbot, has revolutionized the way many of our clients conduct everything from customer service to sales and retention. Devexa never sleeps, she’s always attentive to every client’s needs and is instantly aware of their every move. Furthermore, she is only really limited by the collective imagination of your management.
She can be addressed using natural language or text. She can even be used by your clients in lieu of your actual trading platforms. Ask her what’s going on in your preferred markets and she’ll let you know. Tell her to open and close positions and you’ll find her to be an extremely capable trading assistant.
We may all be experiencing a degree of AI fatigue over the past couple of years as we’ve been bombarded with buzzwords and pie-in-the-sky possibilities, but it’s important to recognize that there’s so much innovative tech available right now for your teams to get to grips with.
Blockchain/Crypto
Blockchain may be another one of those buzzwords that has been overused during the past five or so years. Everything new and innovative becomes a bandwagon on which people trying to get your attention inevitably hop. But let us not throw the baby out with the bathwater, blockchain/crypto technology is a cornerstone to the Internet of value. It solves the issue of digital scarcity and allows the instantaneous transfer of value securely, cheaply, and almost instantaneously.
For some it’s a get-rich-quick scheme, for others it’s inexplicably about cute canine memes, for us it’s a foundational technology that introduces hitherto unimaginable efficiencies and security guarantees. As far as we’re concerned, blockchain will eventually eat the entire asset universe, leading to a future where all financial assets are exchanged cryptographically. And not just traditional financial assets, anything with even a sliver of value can receive the same treatment, be it loyalty points, air miles, or carbon credits.
Augmented reality
Finally, we turn to AR, another exciting technology that we’ve been deep in the weeds with for some time now. As wearables become sleeker and more sophisticated, it’s highly likely that the tiles and widgets on your smartphone will migrate to an AR overlay. Whether the tech that eventually wins out takes the form of Google Glass or something more immersive like Apple’s Vision Pro goggles remains to be seen. At Devexperts, we’re technology agnostic, but we’re almost certain that a version of this technology will be the way forward.
Gone will be the days of robotically picking up your phone to tap your 2-3 favorite apps in search of some kind of update. These things will be available in your field of view should you choose to give them attention while being completely unobstructive the rest of the time.
In our early experiments we’ve been able to combine the power of Devexa with our dxFeed subsidiary’s market-leading data feeds to create an AR environment that empowers a user to always remain connected to the markets they are engaged in.
The system provides tailored news, price feeds, and trading-related updates, while also being able to answer sophisticated queries in natural language such as: “What percentage of S&P 500 companies are currently trading below their respective 50-day moving averages?” Even in these early iterations, it’s far easier and more convenient than logging into a website or regularly opening an app to perform the same tasks. As a productivity tool for traders, it’s incredibly difficult to beat. As a way of differentiating your services from those of your competitors, it is second to none.
Final thoughts
We hope that we’ve been able to convey even a fraction of our excitement regarding the huge leaps forward in financial tech that are just emerging over the horizon. We remain committed to ensuring that our clients maintain a good few paces distance ahead of the pack and are genuinely enthusiastic to be working with them to break new ground.
If any of the topics covered in this article are of interest to you, or even if you have some of your own to suggest, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our team.