The term “Fintech” is an extremely broad term, as the field has exploded as of recent times. In short, Fintech stands for “Financial Technology” and it is a dynamic segment at the intersection of the financial services and technology sectors where technology-focused start-ups and new market entrants innovate the products and services currently provided by the traditional financial services industry. It covers digital innovations and technology-enabled business model innovations in the financial sector.

Such innovations can disrupt existing industry structures and blur industry boundaries, facilitate strategic disintermediation, revolutionize how existing firms create and deliver products and services, provide new gateways for entrepreneurship, democratize access to financial services, but also create significant privacy, regulatory and law-enforcement challenges.

In 1865, Lewis Carroll wrote Alice in Wonderland. We would like to use a wonderful quote from the book to express current times: “my dear, here we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. And if you wish to go anywhere you must run twice as fast as that”.
We have the feeling that this rapid, somewhat chaotic rate of change will continue forever. As Tom Peters was writing in 1994, “today’s economy is revolving around innovatively assembled brain power, not muscle power“. Don’t be afraid of opening your mind. Intelligence is, without doubt, the great gift bequeathed to humanity. Innovation matters – of course. If we do not change what we offer the world there is a good chance we will not be around very long.