The growing popularity of peer-to-peer lending
Years ago, the financial services offered to people who wanted to profit from their savings was very cut and dry. You would either invest your money in the stock exchange, property, or in a term deposit account, to gain interest on your principal investment. Now, investors have the opportunity to expand their portfolio and commit their funds to newer, and arguably more exciting, investment options. Peer-to-peer lending (P2P) This disruption to traditional financial services is due to the growing popularity of peer-to-peer lending (P2P) in the market. This lending process is a method of debt financing that allows individuals to borrow and lend money without the use of an official […]
Globalisation of FinTech: Are we learning from our neighbours?
Most areas in the fintech space are hotly contested. Anyone watching the fintech space can feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of perspectives that emerge when a new product is launched, an article is written or a tweet is sent. And that is largely because fintech is global. Fintech companies may operate in their own local markets and compete with, or “disrupt”, local banks, but financial technology as a whole is a global dealing. Any discussion of fintech needs to have this perspective. This is not just a matter of having the correct frame of reference for discussion and debate, it ensures we find the right way to […]
Poking holes in the “fintech bubble”
Commentary on the “fintech bubble” started as early as mid-2014. As it continued, fintech has been gaining momentum, and more and more, traditional banks and financial companies are reconsidering the strength of their market position. Innovation has spread to payments, lending and currency, from companies such as Tyro, SocietyOne and OnDeck. But instead of focusing on this, the question still being asked is: how long could these “unicorn” companies can continue? The fintech bubble was named after the dotcom bubble of the early 90s, which burst spectacularly in March 2000. In the late 1990s Internet companies had expanded, with online retailers such as Pets.com and Webvan driven forward by low […]
