NZ facing unprecedented fintech changes in 2019

This year, Kiwis will experience more unprecedented changes in financial technology like never before, according to FintechNZ general manager James Brown.

Brown says Kiwis will see some amazing trends such as financial unbundling gaining momentum which will drive more competition and more transparency as New Zealand has witnessed in the life insurance sector.

“It’s all happening this year. We will see new investment platforms will emerge like Sharesies and now Hatch, which now offers customers the opportunity to buy shares in the US Wall St stock market,” says Brown, in a statement.

“Wearable technology will advance and the younger generation likely to be the early adopters. They are aware of more adoption of smart watches while Visa is looking at payment options in sunglasses.

“Regtech will help speed up the anti-money laundering and know your customer process which will lead to more partnering between the large incumbents and fintechs. Using machine learning and better technology will not only speed up the process but make it more secure thus reducing fraud,” says Brown.

“Traditional markets like estate agencies will become targets to new disruptive tech entrants, similar to Purple Bricks in the UK which is presenting a fixed fee offer. Old established markets are open for disruption.

“Buying and selling a property is a long, costly process but with new providers not having lots of branches, they can offer the same service, with an app that allows the seller, agent and potential buyer to be in contact to answer any questions.”

He says the app provides more information about the area, such as police statistics, and can help save thousands of dollars.

“Intangible assets will be more openly discussed, and we could see banks consider lending against it. The best examples of this are Uber and Airbnb. They don’t own taxis or hotels but deliver a service better than the more traditional taxi or hotel chains. Intangible assets now account for 87 per cent of companies’ value.”

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New fintechs don’t have the legacy systems to deal with so can offer a better and more personalised outcomeJames Brown, FintechNZ

Brown says the insurance sector will continue to be under scrutiny with the government taking a hard stance around sales techniques and commission-based products being eliminated.

Consumers will be given even more choice about how and when to pay such as instalments or even borrowing against future earnings as we have seen in the US.

NZ will move away from open banking to open data with the chief executive of one of the big banks already announcing the likely impact to their bottom line.

“Open banking is just focused on the financial services sector where as open data is about the end user and the experience they have with their data from buying online to sharing health information.

“Customer experience will be pushed more into the limelight,” he adds further.

“New fintechs don’t have the legacy systems to deal with so can offer a better and more personalised outcome.”