With the ever-growing interest in the Fintech and Digital Banking industry, it is worth being on track with its trends and opportunities. At Velmie, a white-label digital banking software provider, we decided to handle market research and grant free access to its results. Upon completion, there will be an opportunity to join our virtual panel discussion on the results of the survey and predictions for 2022.
Most of the respondents are startup or SME founders as well as FinTech entrepreneurs and experts. This is live research which means the results would be updated on a monthly basis as we gather more feedback.
Fintech Sectors to Grow in 2024
According to the respondents, the most expected to grow FinTech sectors are finance & lending (73.3%) and cross-border payments (66.6%). Followed by mobile wallets with 60%, and mobile banking (40%).
Lending and BNPL
Despite some criticism of BNPL (they say BNPL apps and programs may encourage consumers to take on debt they are not able to afford) its popularity has significantly grown within 2021. Consumers are expected to make almost $100 billion in retail purchases using BNPL in 2021 — up from $24 and $20.3 billion in 2020 and 2019 respectively.
The significantly grown interest in BNPL is also obvious in the Google Trends report for this term. This term's searches tripled from November 2020 with most of them initiated in APAC.
The service of BNPL has been around much longer than it seems - also known as installment payments and point-of-sale financing (POSF). The difference between that service and today's buy now, pay later is the place in the customer journey (traditionally, at checkout — the end of the customer journey and today, much earlier and influencing consumers’ decisions). Also, the modern BNPL is all about being invisible and smooth by being fully embedded into the customer journey.
Cross border payments
With a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5% per year, the global cross-border payment flow is expected to top $156t by 2024. So, the market size and its growth is appealing to the newcomers.
New Fintechs and MTOs (money transfer operators) attract most of the customers that move smaller amounts of money, as well as SMEs. By implementing cutting-edge technologies and making apps intuitive and user-friendly, they offer better rates, time, and services. Thus, Fintechs can meet most of the consumers’ demands. Wise (formerly Transferwise) claims it saves its users $1 billion a year in transaction fees compared to the use of legacy bank cross-border payment methods.
Mobile Wallets
With the shift to alternative payment methods, mobile wallets have gained significant users’ attention with the most interest coming from younger generations.
In 2020 21.5% of transactions were made via mobile wallet payment. What is more, it is anticipated that 80% of all transactions globally will be done via internet-backed devices by the year 2025.
Check out the must-have features of a mobile wallet solution to win in an increasingly competitive Fintech market.