Money2020: a fast-growing industry with delayed innovation

This week I visited Money2020. This year the biggest event for the European fintech community wasn't the place to be inspired by new innovations and developments. It was mainly a long-awaited reunion with people from the world of finance and tech. However, from the exhibition floor it was clear there’s a clear focus in the industry: making the payment experience for users as easy and secure as possible.

It wasn’t surprising that there were almost no mind blowing innovations during the fair. We have noticed - as confirmed by the Thuiswinkel Markt Monitor - there has been a huge growth in online spending, and thus online payments. Payment providers and suppliers are mainly trying to facilitate that growth. Optimization would be the next step. In addition, we have all lived in a cocoon for the past year and a half. Virtually no collaboration on location also entails a completely different dynamic. There is less fertile ground for innovation, because people do not challenge and inspire each other creatively.

Deploying new technology

Fortunately, this doesn’t have an immediate impact for Online Payment Platform. For example, we have a highly scalable infrastructure to continue our growth and, thanks to collaboration with partners such as Sentinels, we’re at the forefront of deploying new technology. Sentinels helps us with AI and machine learning to proactively detect and fight money laundering and fraud. In the future, by applying the insights from their AI models, we can even prevent criminal activities.

During the event it became clear what fintech companies will be focusing on in the coming period: making it safer and, above all, easier to pay online. For example, many parties that were present provide solutions for identity management. Online identification should make the online buying and selling experience even more user-friendly. The technology to make this possible is getting better and smarter, so I expect that progress will be made in the coming years.

Although it mostly felt like a reunion and especially strengthening personal contacts turned out to be the most important gain for me, the atmosphere of the event was promising for the industry. We want to move forward and it’s good that after the technical challenges have been resolved, the physical limitations no longer stand in the way of that ambition!