Fintech Talents

Fintech Talents

Kallyas is an ultra-premium, responsive theme built for today websites.

T (212) 555 55 00
Email: sales@yourwebsite.com

Your Company LTD
Street nr 100, 4536534, Chicago, US


Content

STAY TUNED

FinTech is …

by Lisa Moyle / Monday 03 August 2020 / Published in Blog, Community & Events, Content, Featured, Fintech, FinTECHTalents, Innovation, Opinion

Thanks to the cosy world of ‘FinTech Influencers’, I learned that August 1st was ‘World FinTech Day’ (thank you, Dave Birch). Whether or not Hallmark is aware of this date in the calendar was less interesting to me than the reason the date was chosen. Back in 1464, Cosimo Medici, father of modern banking and founder of the first bank, shuffled off his mortal coil on the first of August and some clever clog decided this was as good enough reason as any to create ‘World FinTech Day’.

Tracing ‘FinTech’ back to 1464 warms my world-weary financial technology heart. One of my favourite infographics on the ‘History of FinTech’ starts at 1109. There are chronicles of our industry that point to 1865 with Giovanni Caselli’s signature verification system Pantelegraph, others cite 1918, when the US Federal Reserve Bank launched Fedwire, while a quick Google search will also give you 1934 when Frederick Lincoln Fuller created the IBM 801 Bank Proof cash machine as the beginning of FinTech. Basically, if your view of our industry is so narrow that you can not see past 2008, then don’t sit by me.

It is this look into the past that has made me consider what FinTech is at the present. My own FinTech journey started in 1994 when I started as a reporter covering the real-time market data industry at investment banks. My first ‘FinTech’ conference was in 1995 in New York – where giants such as Reuters, Bloomberg, and IBM sat on the exhibition floor beside smaller companies that dealt with market intelligence or helped transfer data to traders yelling deals into turrets all over the world.

I am more likely to see a demonstration of a consumer neo bank, an analytical decision support tool aided by AI or a financial wellness app these days that get a look at a dealer board – but the tone is still the same. How is our industry – financial services – using technology and innovative business models to improve their services, meet users needs and create efficiencies?

What matters is not what ‘FinTech was …’ but what ‘FinTech is …’. It doesn’t matter when you first met me or any other well-known name at some legacy FinTech event that is no longer fit for purpose. The conference I first went to in 1995 used to be over several floors at New York Hilton. Fast forward several years, advances in electronic trading and a global banking collapse and that event is a much smaller affair (even in non-pandemic years).

There are plenty of organisations, conferences, meetups, and even companies, which were once where innovation happened, and interesting people gathered. But what about now?

What purpose does a post tagging when you first met so and so, in a far away country, at a random event – if it doesn’t offer promise for what we as an industry and a society are going through right now?

That was the idea behind ‘FinTech is …’ A quite, subtle campaign we started on Twitter and LinkedIn a few weeks ago. Just an image and an idea and a hashtag. FinTech is …

2020 is a year when we are dealing with great change. From COVID-19, to uncertainty around the economy and massive cultural and political unrest – this is the year of the now. 2020 is not the year of the great reset, but the year we all have been forced to live in the present, as we are all trying to figure out how to survive.

We don’t have time to mourn the loss of how we travelled, how we built companies, and how we networked in the past. We need to look at the current reality and engage in the best way we know how. We do not have the resources to offer our budgets and attention on events that were, frankly, trading on their name before a global pandemic shut down half the world.

We are now living in a world of ‘is’. And the only way forward is to consider, work towards and build what ‘FinTech is …’ today.

With consideration, collaboration and our visions fixed on the horizon let us all continue this long and storied journey of financial innovation and embrace 2020 and create what ‘FinTech is …’

What’s your FinTech is … ? We’ll mock it up and tag you in it! Ya know we’re good at social 😉


Tagged under: #FTT20Virtual, FinTech is, Splash

Recent Posts

  • Lending’s pressure test: What’s holding the industry back and how to break through

    In a rapidly evolving market, lenders are facin...
  • FTT Chats: Anant Patel, CEO of Judopay, wired in Fabrick

    ...
  • FTT Chat, FTT Payments, BR-DGE

    FTT Chat: BR-DGE share expansion plans and orchestration success

    Behind the checkout curtain: Helen Owen talks p...
  • Empowering Members, One Loan at a Time: A Conversation with Ciara Davies, CEO of Metro MoneyWise Credit Union

    Who says that credit unions can’t innovat...
  • Lending through change: A conversation with Simon Taylor, Melton Building Society

    Data, niches, and AI: Simon Taylor on the evolu...


  • Home
  • Call for speakers
  • View all events
  • Fintech Talents events
    • FTT Financial Services Futures 2025
    • FTT Fintech Festival 2025
    • FTT AI Transformation 2025
    • FTT Mutuals 2025
    • FTT Lending 2026
    • FTT Payments 2026
    • Fintech Talents Road Trip 2026
    • Fintech Talents North America 2026
  • FTT Embedded Finance & Super-Apps events
    • FTT Embedded Finance & Super-Apps Europe 2026
    • Customer Alpha Europe 2026
    • FTT Embedded Finance & Super-Apps North America East Coast 2026
    • Customer Alpha North America East Coast 2026
    • FTT Embedded Finance & Super-Apps North America West Coast 2026
    • Customer Alpha North America West Coast 2026
  • Future Identity events
    • Future Identity Festival 2025
    • FID Fraud & FinCrime – Fall Europe 2025
    • Future Identity Finance Europe 2026
    • FID Fraud & FinCrime – Spring Europe 2026
    • Future Identity Customer Europe 2026
    • FID Fraud & FinCrime – Summer Europe 2026
    • Future Identity Finance North America 2026
    • Future Identity Customer North America 2026
  • Past events
    • Breakfast briefing: Lending with intelligence 2025
    • Fraud prevention & customer experience webinar 2025
    • Open Finance & Consumer Duty webinar 2024
    • FTT SME Banking 2023
    • Unboxing the Next Generation of Embedded Finance 2023
    • FTT AI Transformation webinar 2024
  • Content
    • All Content
    • Interviews
    • Opinion
    • Videos
    • Digital Reports
  • VC INNOVATIONS – Accelerated Marketing

GET IN TOUCH

T +44 203 835 2829
Email: marketing@vcinnovations.co.uk

LONDON
85 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4TQ
Open in Google Maps

NEW YORK
477 Broadway, 2nd Floor, Suite 1033, New York, NY 10013
Open in Google Maps

QUICK LINKS

  • Home
  • About VC INNOVATIONS
  • Events
  • FAQs
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram

RECENT POSTS

  • Lending’s pressure test: What’s holding the industry back and how to break through

    In a rapidly evolving market, lenders are facin...
  • FTT Chats: Anant Patel, CEO of Judopay, wired in Fabrick

    ...
  • FTT Chat, FTT Payments, BR-DGE

    FTT Chat: BR-DGE share expansion plans and orchestration success

    Behind the checkout curtain: Helen Owen talks p...
  • Privacy Policy

© VC Innovations 2018. All Rights Reserved.



TOP
 
SAVE £500 WITH THE EARLY BIRD BEFORE 5th SEPTEMBER
BOOK TODAY
 
 
SAVE £500 WITH THE EARLY BIRD BEFORE 5th SEPTEMBER
BOOK TODAY
 
 
SAVE £500 WITH THE EARLY BIRD BEFORE 5th SEPTEMBER
BOOK TODAY
 
Manage Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}
Manage Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}
Media & Associations Pass


Get involved


FTT Payments 2025 - Download previous attendee list


Download now


Press & Media Pass


Get involved



FTT Mutuals 2025 - Download previous attendee list


FTT AI Transformation 2025 - Download previous attendee list


Get involved


Get involved